AYO (as he
was fondly called by his colleagues) worked with one of the Flour Mills located
in the heart of Apapa before his death in a recent boat accident. The deceased
worked with the defunct Ideal Flour Mills before the company retrenched him. He
used his entitlements to build a low-cost house in Ikorodu where he lived with
his wife and children.
When another
Flour Mill based in Apapa offered him a fresh employment, Ayo, found it too
expensive and cumbersome to be coming to work from Ikorodu. The situation was
worsened by the perennial traffic jam not only in the Ikorodu axis, but also
along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, hence Ayo opted to rent a room across the
Waterside because it was cheaper and more accessible to his new company. This
advantage, however, turned sour as Ayo died in a boat mishap recently. When his
corpse was later found after about two days intensive search, the eyes had been
gorged out by fishes. He was buried by the waterside as tradition requires that
those who drown in the river be buried by the side of the same river.
Ayo would
probably be alive today if he had not taken the decision to squat in a building
across the Atlantic Ocean due mainly to the traffic jam that has unsettled many
residents of Apapa and its environs and led to the closure or relocation of
non-shipping companies in the business hub.
Busiest
seaports, tank farms
Indeed going
to Apapa from any part of Lagos is akin to travelling through the biblical
“valley of the shadow of death.” The reason for this description is not
far-fetched. Apapa is home to the nation’s busiest seaports, tanks farms and
other blue chip companies, hence the traffic snarl on virtually all the roads
leading into and out of the town.
It is
commonplace to find heavy-duty trailers and articulated vans stuck on the
highway for several hours, thereby impeding the free flow of traffic in that
axis. The traffic jam along the Oshodi-Apapa expressway, has been directly
linked to the congestion in both the Apapa and Tin-Can ports and the long queue
by petrol tankers to load their consignment from the tank farms in the
neighbourhood. Vanguard learnt that the congestion is a fallout of the
snail-speed offloading of containers by
the port terminal operators and acute shortage of space for the trucks to park
while waiting to discharge their consignments.
Fuel
imported only through Lagos Ports: WE learnt that more than 90 percent of the
petroleum products consumed in the country, come in through the Lagos ports.
This necessitated the siting of the tank farms in Apapa where the two major
ports are domiciled. While the ports in Lagos are heavily congested with ships
queuing to get port calls to berth, the eastern ports are lying fallow due to little
or no patronage.
Apart from
the Port at Onne in Rivers State, the other seaports located at Port Harcourt,
Calabar, Warri and Koko are, mildly put, existing only in name. Freight
forwarders in the eastern ports who reeled out the challenges facing their
operations, accused the Federal Government of churning out policies that were
deliberately targeted at strangulating operations in the eastern ports. The duo
of Mr. Uche Solomon Eluagu and Chief Obi Chima told Vanguard last year that the
disparity in freight charges has greatly impaired the operations of ports in
the eastern flank.
Mr. Eluagu
who is the Public Relations Officer of the Association of Nigeria Licensed
Customs Agents, ANLCA, Onne Seaport chapter, alleged that the Federal
Government is encouraging capital flight to Lagos by its deliberate policy of
strangulating the eastern ports. He declared: “The government is deliberately
strangulating and frustrating the business activities in the eastern ports,
thereby creating capital flight to Lagos. Although the two port at Onne which
were concessioned to Messrs INTELS Services, can handle oil and gas related
cargo, many of importers prefer to use the Lagos ports because of the disparity
in freight charges which is tilted in favour of users of Lagos ports.
Non-functional
refineries
Apart from
the reconstruction of the Oshodi-Apapa expressway by Messrs Julius Nigeria Plc
which is progressing at a rather snail’s speed and the parlous state of the
link roads, the greatest problem of Apapa which directly and indirectly impacts
on the traffic situation in the area, is
the location of no fewer than 20 tank farms in the neighbourhood.
The plethora
of tank farms in Apapa became necessary following the collapse of the
refineries and the massive importation of refined petroleum products through
the seaports. Lagos which enjoys a near monopoly of fuel importation in the
country, thus became the preferred destination for fuel dealers who send their
tankers from all parts of the country to lift the product. Functional
refineries at Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri would have lessened the quantity
of fuel imported into the country and the number of tankers that come to Lagos
to lift the product
The
recurring question on the lips of concerned stakeholders is “who approved the
construction of these tank farms in Apapa and environs? Did the owners carry
out the mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, required by the law, to
determine the effects of such projects on their neighbourhood and how they
would be mitigated before the construction of such projects are commenced? If
the EIAs were done, were the reports/recommendations subjected to public
scrutiny and open debate as required by the EIA law? What are the measures put
in place by the operators of the tank farms to cushion the horrendous impacts
of their activities? It is the view of stakeholders that an EIA would have
identified the negative multiplier effects of locating tank farms in an already
congested neighbourhood.
The Lagos
State government which is engaged in a buck-passing game with its Federal
counterpart, alleged that no EIA done before siting the tank farms. Special
Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola on Information and Strategy, Alhaji
Lateef Raji maintained thus: “The Lagos State Government was not contacted for
Environment Impact Assessment, EIA.
Environmental
impact assessment
“The
question should be asked, who did they contact for EIA before they located the
tank farms? The problem is that the Federal Government has refused to see the
state government as a coordinating partner in all its ventures in the state.
The point is that the Federal Government
has failed to realise that they do not have the capability to achieve
urban renewal; it rests on the state. They should not just dabble into every
department, all in the name of Federal might,” he said.
One of the
tank farm owners who pleaded anonymity, confirmed that his company did not do
an EIA before siting its tank farm at Apapa “What do you mean by EIA?” he
asked. When Vanguard explained what it meant, he retorted: “No! We didn’t do
anything like that. I guess there was nothing like that requirement when we
started. But if there was, then the agency of government concerned did not
enforce it, because they did not envisage what is happening now”.
90 per cent
of tank farms in Apapa
Currently,
there are about 20 companies with tank farms and petroleum storage facilities
around Apapa, with each storage facility capable of holding between 20 million
litres to 50 million litres of petroleum products. According to data of
petroleum products’ allocations released by the Petroleum Products Pricing
Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, Nigeria currently imports about 4.8 billion litres of
petroleum products per quarter. Almost all of these importations are done
through the Apapa ports, as about 90 per cent of the tank farms in the country are
located around the Apapa area. To evacuate these 4.5 billion litres of
petroleum products from the tank farms in Apapa per quarter, about 136,364
tankers, with an average capacity of about 33,000 litres are required.
Negative
impact
This
translates to about 1,515 tankers with a capacity of 33,000 litres plying the
Apapa axis on a daily basis to lift petroleum products from these tank farms to
different parts of the country. In addition to risks posed by locating these
tanks close to the ports and residential areas, the tankers also pose serious
risks to road users, the environment and the society.
Worst of all
the negative impacts of the tankers, is the perennial traffic situation around
the Apapa area. Over the years the tankers have made life unbearable for other
road users and businesses around the area, leading to questions over the
approval process of these tank farms in Apapa. The issues of the approval
process for these tank farms were called to question in 2012, when officials of
the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA, sealed the premises of
five of the oil tank farms’ owners for violation of the state’s environmental
laws.
LASEPA
disclosed that the oil companies were shut for siting tank farms less than 200
metres away from residential area and operating tank farms without submission
of Environmental Impact Assessment report to the relevant government agencies.
However, the premises of the tank farms owners were re-opened after one week,
after the companies signed a memorandum of understanding, MOU, with the Lagos
State Government.
LASEPA
agreed with the oil companies that a consultant will be employed to conduct a
post-impact assessment of the area to ascertain the extent of environmental
pollutions that may have been impacted.
The Lagos
State Government also mandated the oil companies, as part of numerous safety
measures, to construct water hydrant in front of their depots and purchase fire
engines to fight any outbreak of fire in the area. However, nothing else was
heard about the issue ever since, despite the fact that the oil companies have
failed to abide by the spirit and letters of the MOU.
Relocate
tank farms to Lekki EPZ
A few of
months ago, when a tanker discharging fuel went up in flames, at Emordi Street
in Olodi-Apapa area of Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government, near the vicinity of
the tank farms, it took divine intervention to save the entire community from
been gutted by fire. Vanguard recalls that the Governor of Lagos State, Mr.
Babatunde Fashola, has had cause to call for the relocation of all the tank
farms from within the Apapa area.
“Government
must understand that its business is the welfare of its people and it cannot
deliver that by amateurish standard. This place was not designed for fuel
discharge, but they have converted it for that, with all sorts of permits given
by regulatory agencies, such as the DPR and the PPMC. I think that agencies of
the Federal Government must step up their safety compliance levels. Everybody
must do his/her job and that is short term. The long term is to relocate all
these facilities away from residential areas. Lagos state is ready to provide
these facilities,” Fashola said
Fashola
urged the Federal Government to take advantage of the Oil and Gas Section at
the Lekki Free Trade Zone in its relocation plan.
Although the
former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, promised to
relocate the tank farms along the Oshodi/Apapa expressway as a way of finding a
lasting solution to the unending traffic gridlock, it is the view of
stakeholders that the relocation should be hastened as they (tank farms) have
become an economic and social nuisance to residents and business concerns in
the Apapa area.
No comments:
Post a Comment