Tin Can Port’s traffic of horror
installation facilities. I don’t think we should wait. This is enough.”
But some maritime operators have kicked against the suggestion, arguing relocating the tank farms would bring up all sorts of problems of its own.
Former Interior Minister and Chairman of Integrated Oil and Gas Limited, Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho argued that relocating the tank farm would simply be transferring a problem from a part of Lagos to another part of the state. Iheanacho maintained that rather than relocate the farms, government should compel the farms operators to invest heavily in safety measures and abide strictly by safety regulations. He pointed out that many tank farms have been operating in Apapa for more than 50 years without any incident because they have been observing safety procedures.
The federal government appears to have already directed the Nigerian Ports Authority to relocate the tank farms, although it doesn’t seem that will happen anytime soon. Senior Special Assistant to the President on Maritime, Mr Leke Oyewole, in April this year told stakeholders at an interactive forum in Lagos that the NPA had been directed to move the tank farms to the hinterland to avoid a major fire disaster in the area. Oyewole admitted it was dangerous for tank farms to continue to be at the Apapa port. He cited large expanses of land in areas like Mosimi, Ejigbo, Kwara, Ibadan and Ore that could be developed for tank farm owners.
As in other measures the federal government has been taking over the years to battle the Apapa-Tin Can Island traffic scourge, the current Julius Berger road repair intervention is seen as a flash. The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Lagos Sector Commander, Mr Chidi Nkwonta told journalists last week that the measure can only be temporary.
Nkwonta said the relocation of the tank farms had become inevitable because of the increase in the number of tankers, the dilapidated condition of the roads and the negligence of the stakeholders in the oil and gas industry. He charged, “They (the tank farms) cannot be on the port roads in Apapa. The siting of the tank farms is inappropriate. It is in the heart of the town and it is unsafe; it is causing congestion. As such, it is endangering the entire environment. So, the tank farms must move at the long run, while the roads must be fixed. You cannot control the traffic on those roads when the roads are so bad.”
The sector commander also alleged dishonesty among stakeholders in coordinating the movement of the tankers in and out of the farms to resort to queuing on the access roads, a point Chikere also harped on.
In the final analysis, a rail line is what all the commentators Sunday Trust spoke with mentioned as the best alternative to evacuate whatever form of goods from both the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, and consequently solve the traffic jam in those areas once and for all. Both Olorunfunmi and Bello wondered why, with the TCIP alone spinning about N2 billion every month for the federal government, the latter cannot deem it fit to construct a functional rail network for the two ports for cargo evacuation.