The Tank Farm Dilemma

Governor Raji Fashola

Although the Federal Government has ordered Tank Farm operators along the ever-busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway to meet requisite conditions or close shop, it now faces the dilemma of either making good its threat or giving in to the status-quo
By Innocent Chukwu
The Apapa-Oshodi Expressway is unarguably the busiest road in the Lagos metropolis. This is because many believe that the Ikorodu Road and Third Mainland bridge, also in the heart of the cosmopolitan city, are equally busy. Apart from these, the main access road to the nation’s economy gateway– the seaports– carries the heaviest loads on daily basis, and as such, has no comparison. Being the major entry and exit route to the Lagos Ports, the expressway is always laden with heavy duty trucks conveying containerised and bulk cargoes to and from the wharf, and to other parts of the country and beyond.
Indeed, were the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway to be a human being, it would have long suffered paralysis and given up the ghost. If it were to be an ethnic region or geo-political zone, its citizens would have for decades been burdened and wearied through bitter outcry against marginalisation and neglect. Unfortunately, the inanimate expressway, for over a decade now, has been reduced to the status of the proverbial goose which although lays a huge chunk of the nation’s golden egg, is being slaughtered silently by an insensitive leadership.
The road which has now been left to the mercy of floods during rainy seasons and numerous pot holes and gullies, remains one of the Federal Government's all-important roads in Lagos State. Traffic flow along the road is a nightmare. According to reliable statistics, over 2,000 vehicles of all kinds and sizes and weight, ply the road each day. So, given its narrowness and bad state, a journey of about 30 minutes between Oshodi and Apapa wharf, where the expressway terminates, linking Wharf Road, takes on the average more than two hours.
The worsening traffic gridlock on the expressway was to heighten in the past 10 years after the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) issued licences to some enterprenuers to situate Tank Farms along the busy road. These Tank Farms which serve as depots for refined petroleum products imported into the country, are located very close to the main road. Consequently, their activities and operations have contributed in no small measure to escalating traumatic traffics situation along the expressway.
Between 2002 and last year, the Apapa-Oshodi expressway has repeatedly experienced impregnable traffic gridlock which atimes spreads to Cele Bus Stop, along the Mile II axis of the road. During such occasions, there are reported cases of motorists who slumped and died on their steering, ostensibly out of fatigue. Others have had their valuables snatched by dare-devil marauders while several car engines have knocked while trapped in the ugly situation.
Each time it raines, there is always a heavy flood between Coconut bus stop near Tincan Island and Sunrise Bus Stop both a notable points along the road. During such occasions, it takes a vehicle at least one hour to negotiable through the flooded areas. Hence, a journey from Apapa to Mile II, takes more than six or seven hours each time it rained. The potholes and gullies further render the road impassable. But worse than these is the congestion caused by tankers and trucks which park on both sides of the road where Tank Farms are located, waiting to load petroleum products to be conveyed to different parts of the country.
Up until late last year, The Source’s checks showed that some of the trucks park on the main road for about three weeks before it is their turn to load. Presently, the service lanes on both sides of the road are permanently occupied by those trucks. Their activities obviously disrupt traffic flow.
However, on several occasions, the Lagos State Government, acting through its traffic management agency (LASTMA), has had series of squabbles with tanker drivers along the route. This also resulted to threats of strike by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) for harassing its drivers.
Just last year, apparently shaken by the man hours lost to congestion along the road, the Federal Government woke from its slumber to confront the tanker drivers headlong. To pursue this goal, a task force to decongest the road was set up. Working assiduously to enhance traffic flow, the truck owners and drivers were compelled to beat a retreat. The authorities had insisted that they must not occupy the roads when it is not their turn to load their trucks.
Having checkmated the trucks, the Federal Government under President Umaru Yar’Adua came to the realisation that as long as the Tank Farms operate along the road indiscriminately and without rules and regulations, it would be hard to effectively put the trucks at bay. This is because the drivers must, wittingly or unwitting flout traffic rules in their desperate bid to get petroleum products for distribution across the country.
Consequently, at a recent Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the presidency decided that Tank Farm owners or operators must meet certain requirements if they must be allowed to retain their sprawling businesses along the Apapa-Oshodi expressway.
In time past, many observers had accused the leadership of former President Olusegun Obasanjo of inability to deal squarely with Tank Farm operators. These stakeholders had argued that owners of the Tank Farms are influential politicians and business gurus who the former president could not sanction because of their hold on his government. Hence, Obasanjo was stridently accused of turning deaf ears to the wailings of many Nigerians who ply the road everyday.
Indeed, as a way of expressing his deep concern about the plight of the masses, the government of President Yar’Adua last month decided to defy the “bigness” or otherwise of whoever operates the Tank Farms. After a FEC meeting in Abuja last July, the Minister of Transportation, Diezani Allison-Madueke, flew down to Lagos and hastily convened a meeting of the stakeholders wherein she let the cat out of the bag, by vehemently telling Tank Farm operators that decorum must be observed in running their enterprise so as to avoid stepping on the rights of other Nigerians.
At the interactive session held at the Eko Hotel, Lagos, Allison-Madueke maintained that while it is not in the interest of the Federal Government to disregard the economic importance of Tank Farms and other entrepreneurial ventures or cripple the thriving business of the entrepreneurs, “we will (at the same time) do everything necessary to address areas of traffic congestion on port access roads, as there are many other sectors of the economy that depend on the access road.” She added that the safety of citizens living around the areas where the farms are located was also taken into consideration by the presidency in arriving at its decision.
The presidency decided that Tank Farms that would be allowed to operate along the road must have holding bays or parking bays, without which their operations would be suspended.
According to the minister, September 1, 2008 is the deadline for Tank Farm operators to meet the new requirements or risk incurring the wrath of the government. This threat, Allison-Madueke said, was because the Tank Farm owners had failed to pay heed to government's insistence regarding the provision of requisite operating facilities even when they were given one whole year since 2007 to do so. Only a few operators, she said, appear to have begun to comply while the rest wish to maintain the status-quo.
To effectively monitor the level of compliance with the directive, the Federal Government, the minister added, has set up a task force charged with the responsibility of moving round the Tank Farms to identify stiff-necked owners for punishment, as well as to further decongest the road.
Besides the construction of holding bays, the task force was also charged to ensure that all trucks and tankers used in conveying petroleum products are installed with the necessary communication gadgets which will be used in calling up the drivers in turns so that all of them would not converge at the major road at the same time.
Responding to the threat, the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), appears to be challenging the Federal Government to a duel. Absolving itself of the blame of altering traffic flow along the Apapa-Oshodi expressway–yet claiming it had long met all the necessary conditions– DAPPMA Chiarman, Sylvanus Okoli, said: “All member depots have adequate facilities and enough space to accommodate trucks for their individual loadings.”
Okoli insisted that the authorit