Nigeria Without Trucks And Their Drivers?

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Project Nigeria, started by the British with the 1914 Amalgamation, is still work in progress, after a century. In fact, next year will make 110 years of the Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates. Many people will say we have made a lot of progress since flag independence in 1960, while another multitude will counter them by saying we have made none. We are actually not progressing, they would say.

A coin has two sides; so I find on both sides — those that say we have made progress and those that are of the belief that we have not. It is a recurring debate where many are gathered, either at parties, bars, workplaces, or even in the molue or danfo, wherein self-appointed pontiffs who claim a lot of knowledge about what should have been done or not proclaim the way the country should have gone. In all the discussions, what is usually omitted is the fact that the individual has a role to play in the nation’s development, and that since many Nigerians don’t think they have an obligation to their country, they find themselves in situations they don’t like and are impotent to do anything about.

Citizenship has its duties and obligations, chief of which is obeying the law, and putting others first. Incidentally, putting others first is enshrined in the ethos of our tribal communities, but which many of us discard when we venture out of the tribal or clannish areas. That is why behaviour that is at best, anti-social is condoned in the cities. Any conduct that will impede the activities of others are disfavoured, but in the towns and cities, anything goes. 

This brings me to the issue of the gridlock on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, which took a life of its own from around 2012, during the Jonathan administration, and has persisted till date. As I write this, that expressway, leading to the nation’s busiest ports is choked with trucks of two types. There are fuel tankers going to any of the 35 or so fuel depots in the Apapa area to lift fuel. The others are flat-pallet, container-bearing trucks going to the ports.

The expressway is a 10-lane affair, comprising three lanes and two-lane service roads each side, outbound and inbound. These trucks have turned the main expressway into their parking lot, and not done, added the service lane, and locked out other road users. At a time, sections of the expressway were so bad that even these famous trucks would sink in the mammoth craters that were allowed to grow on it. That has been fixed; it is now an all-concrete road from Apapa through Oshodi to Gbagada.

To manage the flow of trucks, an electronic call-up system was introduced which would alert truck drivers of the time they can be on the road to access the ports. But we understand that whims and caprices of these drivers have rendered that system ineffectual. The uniformed services have been unable to rein in the truck drivers because those sent there demand and get bribes from the truck drivers to shut down the road.

My point is: Does the average truck driver and the bribe-collecting uniformed service man realise the economic mayhem they are wreaking by parking on the road and adjoining bridges and denying other citizens access to use the road? We are not the only oil-producing country in the world. We are also not the only country in the world that imports refined petroleum products. I have been to countries in both categories. What is striking about the United Arab Emirates is the near-absence of tankers on their roads. I know they must have. Similarly, the South Africans import and refine, but tankers don’t choke their roads the way they do ours here. 

The issue for me is that every one of us has a role to play in ensuring that it is well with Nigeria. We cannot be disobeying the law and expect an eldorado. Order is key, and it comes with being law-abiding. The countries to which our youths are fleeing in droves remain attractive because they are orderly; people there are law-abiding. We must be law-abiding and put others first in everything we do if we want our country to be good. It is not only truck drivers; other groups are included. If we are law-abiding, we would not take to bursting pipelines as an occupation.

If we think of the commonwealth, we would refrain from cutting aluminium railings off our bridges to melt for other uses. If we have an iota of obligation to our country, it should be clear that vandalising pipelines and removing railtracks for sale are crimes that we should not commit. When we say this, the retort usually is: “Wetin government sef do for anybody?” While that, for me, is an academic question, given prevailing circumstances, I think we should not worsen a bad situation by engaging in anti-social acts. 

One upon a time, Apapa was a part of Lagos anybody would like to live and work in. Apapa GRA was where the legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo lived, as well as the late Chief Abraham Adesanya, and other notables. Now, Apapa is virtually inaccessible, either from Ijora or from Mile 2 area. The approaches to the area are choked with trucks, and tankers, both of whom come with urchins and filth. 

The urchins that trail trucks rob people trapped in traffic, while the truck drivers themselves defecate in the drains, thereby endangering public health. Is it possible to dream of a Lagos without trucks? What work would need to be done to achieve that? Do we have the capacity for the rigour needed to achieve that?

*Adekoya is a commentator on public issues