We all know of Governor Ambode's recent cry for Eastern Ports to be fixed to save Lagos from choking under the pressure of having the only functional deep port in Nigeria.

Finally, Lagos is bursting as a victim of its own success.
From Apapa to Surulere, Mile 2 to Orile, the city is
overgrown with trucks. Truck queues that grow daily like
wild legumes. Human traffic. Vehicular traffic. Refuse.
People are gathering fungus sitting hours in their cars.
Sweating inside buses and scratching itchy hairs. Dying of trucks.

Wild, smoky trucks—they are headed to Apapa, “to load”
goods and distribute across the vastness of Nigeria’s
container economy. Toothpick containers. Toothpaste.
Electronics. Goods and frivolities produced by foreign
wisdom, needed by populous nations that create little. The trucks wait in queue for weeks, sometimes months,
delayed by ditches, logistics, and corruption. Lagosians
therefore stew in their cars in faraway Ojuelegba, waiting
for trucks to load in Apapa and move an inch. The truck
drivers lay mats under their vehicles to lounge, wake up to piss by the roadside, and drink more gin to replace the
discharged liquid.

Lords they are, these truck drivers, feared by the
government and by all other motorists. Their trucks are
parked atop weakening overhead bridges in defiance to
regulations and Ambode’s serial ultimatums. They know
he cannot tow away over 5,000 trucks, nor does he have a place to park them if he does. They know the government cannot do anything to them because the situation has moved from being a problem to becoming an impossible complication, just like Nigeria. So the trouble can only deepen rather than ameliorate.
But in the final analysis, truck drivers are not the problem. That politics of exclusion, that deliberate bottleneck inserted by politics to make Aba or Onitsha importers use the Lagos port instead of the ones close to them. That politics that resists the proposal of a full Eastern port, fearing current economic independence and future secession. Those two-lane roads around Apapa built by colonial power and hardly ever expanded ever since, now bearing the tonnage of transportation for over 170 million people. With the current complication, fixing the roads is now such a task.

Lagos—center of excellence and fulcrum of the Nigerian
dystopia. With poor state economies across the nation,
Lagos became a major magnet for mindless urbanization, deepening wear and tear on its infrastructure. Huge budgets but, broken down per capita, Lagos spends around N8,000 per Lagosian in a year! It is a state in need of multiple, tolled overhead bridges to be built by public- private partnerships. Yet a state that, in less than a decade, will be completely overwhelmed by people, more trucks, more money but little real value. It will worsen because of the politics that resists ports deregulation.

It is time to leave. Time to leave or stay and die under the impending rubble. This Lagos, e no go work.

Kaduna built a dry port and it was started under El Rufai. The people in the state didn't lament or point fingers...instead they built a port. The energy you people use in crying and wailing is enough to build the SE of your dreams. So shut up and demand more from your governors

lionness:
Kaduna built a dry port and it was started under El Rufai. The people in the state didn't lament or point fingers...instead they built a port. The energy you people use in crying and wailing is enough to build the SE of your dreams. So shut up and demand more from your governors

You wouldn't be able to understand this issue even if Bill Gates connected your brain to a Microsoft server database.

Bye

lionness:
Kaduna built a dry port and it was started under El Rufai. The people in the state didn't lament or point fingers...instead they built a port. The energy you people use in crying and wailing is enough to build the SE of your dreams. So shut up and demand more from your governors

Tell us something about this port we don't know already, so you think the dry port has helped to reduce the truck load in Lagos. The kaduna is like a northern park from Lagos.

nku5:


You wouldn't be able to understand this issue even if Bill Gates connected your brain to a Microsoft server database.

Bye

I concur.

Kudos dear op for such brilliance. You spoke my mind.

I had to run, run away from Lagos 11years ago -a dying city

Op let them choke on greed. How can a so-called country of 200 million people depend on only one major port. All because of tribal politics.

An Igbo proverb says “ when you are holding someone down, you are also holding yourself down”

Oildichotomy:

Tell us something about this port we don't know already, so you think the dry port has helped to reduce the truck load in Lagos. The kaduna is like a northern park from Lagos.

Abeg don't waste your time with that one who thinks Kaduna Dry Port was built by El-Rufai

horsepower101:
Op let them choke on greed. How can a so-called country of 200 million people depend on only one major port. All because of tribal politics.

An Igbo proverb says “ when you are holding someone down, you are also holding yourself down”

Their eye don dey clear. I remember when they wanted to curse Jonathan to death when he said he would decongest Lagos. Now they are begging for it

For those who need perspective and details on what is wrong with the Eastern Ports

Operator’s perspective: The Managing Director of Ports & Terminal Operators (Nigeria) Limited, the concessionaire to the premier seaport in Port-Harcourt, Mrs Lizzie Ovbude enumerated some of the constraints the concessionaires are grappling with.

She said, “I know that when NPA was still the master sea dock, to improve traffic in the eastern flank, NPA had to give about 30 percent discount. That was some years back, before the concessioning. They gave about 30 percent discount to vessels that are willing to come to the eastern ports. That was a kind of encouragement to enable vessels to come to this part of the country. But after the concessioning, there has been no such encouragement.” She alleged that there is a conspiracy by ship owners to stifle the operations of the ports in Port-Harcourt. Her words: ”For Port HarcourtPort, I don’t know whether it is a kind of conspiracy from ship owners; you know that the shipping industry is dominated by foreigners. They own the vessels. I do know that we have done a lot of marketing campaigns from Port Harcourt Ports here. We have been to clients at Enugu, Aba, Onitsha, Nnewi, that is the eastern flank who import through Lagos and made them know that we are actually back. They have shown a lot of interest but one issue we have always had is the vessels to bring such cargo, that is, containerized vessels. “Before now, we had reached an agreement with two shipping lines who agreed to come and as we were doing the marketing campaign, they suddenly withdrew their vessels. And you know, when you have been to a client once, twice and they are showing interest and suddenly everything goes that way, they will not take you seriously anymore. That is what the shipping companies have made us look like. And up until now, we still have clients that have been calling, making enquires on vessels that could come… Containerised vessels They are all foreign ship owners and if they say they are not coming, we cannot force them to come. And that is why you see a lot of importers go to Lagos and begin to truck their cargo down.” Although Mrs Ovbude agreed that the channels in Port-Harcourt Port 1 are not big enough for containerized vessels to berth, he listed efforts made by her company to expand the draught to enable moderately bi vessels to come in. He was pissed by the fact that the Federal Government is not doing anything to dredge the port to pave the way for containerized vessels to come to the oldest seaport in the eastern part of the country. “They complain about channels but I want to say that even though ships have grown bigger and they want to take comparative advantage of bigger vessels because your cost on a bigger vessel is the same as your cost on a smaller vessel. If you have a bigger vessel that will bring much cargo, you will spread your cost and it becomes lower than when you take a smaller vessel that will bring small cargo, small tonnage; your cost goes higher when you spread it on small tonnage cargo. That is an issue, the non-dredging of the channels, the non-dredging of the ports. That is why I said from the beginning that I may not be able to tell you all the constraints because I will talk from the perspective of a port operator but freight forwarders will have their own issue. If you go into the terminal, you will see the extensions we did to be able to achieve a deeper draught to allow for at least moderately sized vessels to come.. At a point, the facilities became very dilapidated and operations went down. We have also been marketing, telling our clients that the port is no longer what it used to be. We have made it operational once again. When the facilities went down, there were no plants. Today, we have bought kalmar container handling equipment and so the equipment to operate efficiently are there. Deeper level draught The stacking area is there, the berths have been improved because we have extended into the water to achieve some deeper level of draught. Government will need to do something and what government needs to do is, the type of encouragement they gave to shipping companies a few years back, they need to bring it once again,” she canvassed.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/eastern-ports-lying-fallow/

More perspective

"In the twilight of General Yakubu Gowon’s administration in the mid-1970s, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was battling with the problems of ports congestion as a result of massive cement importation.
The government decided to build two new ports to ease the transaction costs associated with shipping and to ensure adequate facilities for Nigeria’s import and export needs.
A feasibility study was carried out and the experts recommended the creation of two new ports; one in Lagos and another in Ibaka, in present day Akwa Ibom State. These projects were contained in the 3rd National Development Plan.
The one in Lagos is the Tin-Can Island Port commissioned by the then Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, and deputy to then military Head of State, Genera Olusegun Obasanjo, now late Major-General Shehu Yar’Adua on 14th October, 1977.
Ibaka Port was never constructed, purportedly on the advice of the then Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and current Chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
I heard Tukur’s argument was that instead of starting a new port from scratch, the same resources could be used to revive existing and nearby Calabar Port.
Government bought his argument and a huge amount I’m still trying to find out was used to revive the port. The new Calabar Port Complex was commissioned on 9th June, 1979.
I heard Alhaji Tukur has a wife from Calabar. Now I’m not sure if his wife influenced his decision or if his support for Calabar port made the community bless him with their daughter. But anyhow, it is clear that the decision is a wrong one because Calabar Port is still moribund.
Fast forward to 2006 when Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’sson, the iconic Chief Adebayo Babatunde Sarumi, was in charge of the Nigerian Ports Authority.
A princely sum of 56 million dollars (about N9 billion) was spent on dredging the Calabar Port channel.

The dredging contract was awarded to two dredging firms: Messrs Jan de Nul and Van Oord. The federal government divided the entire length of the channel in Calabar Port between the two firms.
While Van Oord was paid $26 million to dredge kilometre 0 to 46, Jan de Nul got $30 million to dredge kilometre 46 to 84. According to the scope of the contract, the two firms were to scoop out 25 million cubic metres of sand to achieve an overall draft of 8 metres to allow big vessels call at the port.
Not one big ship has called at the port ever since because while the companies collected their monies and walked away, the channel remains as shallow as ever.
Of course the appreciative Calabar community honoured Chief Sarumi with a chieftaincy title."

http://shipsandports.com.ng/before-we-dredge-calabar-port-again/

Most of those trucks you see laden with goods are owned by Igbos from imported goods. We will flood the whole of Lagos with trucks, blocking every road until they open Port Harcourt port, Onne port, Calabar port, Warri and Onitsha port. Wicked things! They don't import nothing; all they do and know is collect state tax...sucking blood out of Igbos!

benben1000:
Most of those trucks you see laden with goods are owned by Igbos from imported goods. We will flood the whole of Lagos with trucks, blocking every road until they open Port Harcourt port, Onne port, Calabar port, Warri and Onitsha port. Wicked things! They don't import nothing; all they do and know is collect state tax...sucking blood out of Igbos!

Correct. The current minister of National inland waterway (an Hausa man) said that roughly 60% of good imports in Nigeria heads to onitsha.

nku5:


You wouldn't be able to understand this issue even if Bill Gates connected your brain to a Microsoft server database.

Bye

Chai this one BAM.....aswea their brain needs system update.....

horsepower101:


Correct. The current minister of National inland waterway (an Hausa man) said that roughly 60% of good imports in Nigeria heads to onitsha.

Can you open a thread and post what the minister said? When we say these things these afonjas think we are lying but deep in their hearts they know we are feeding them in this country, that's why they don't want us to go. The day Igbos will leave this country, Afonjas will be reduced to IDP camp; I'm telling you maka chukwu.

benben1000:


Can you open a thread and post what the minister said? When we say these things these afonjas think we are lying but deep in their hearts they know we are feeding them in this country, that's why they don't want us to go. The day Igbos will this country, Afonjas will be reduced to IDP camp; I'm telling you maka chukwu.

There was already a thread about it. See below

https://www.nairaland.com/4614845/60-per-cent-cargo-nigeria

Ok

horsepower101:


There was already a thread about it. See below

https://www.nairaland.com/4614845/60-per-cent-cargo-nigeria

Good thx. I missed that thread, would have written a powerful post that will command 1000 likes and expose these hungry, wretched propagandist afonjas.

benben1000:
Most of those trucks you see laden with goods are owned by Igbos from imported goods. We will flood the whole of Lagos with trucks, blocking every road until they open Port Harcourt port, Onne port, Calabar port, Warri and Onitsha port. Wicked things! They don't import nothing; all they do and know is collect state tax...sucking blood out of Igbos!

I was in a warehouse at Isolo when some touts tried to storm the gate because a truck parked inside the compound passed them on the road without giving them money.

They couldn't enter so they started throwing bottles into the compound while smoking weed at the gate. The owner called the police but they didn't give him any sensible answer. They only left when the man loaded his pump action and released few shots in the air close to the gate

The taxing seems to be breeding more touts looking for easy money

Terrible Con3

Lagos na wao. I flew for 6hrs from johannesburg to lagos, thats over 3000 miles but then i drove for 4hrs from MMA to ojota, thats less than 30 kilometres. That's lagos traffic for you.

nku5:


I was in a warehouse at Isolo when some touts tried to storm the gate because a truck parked inside the compound passed them on the road without giving them money.

They couldn't enter so they started throwing bottles into the compound while smoking weed at the gate. The owner called the police but they didn't give him any sensible answer. They only left when the man loaded his pump action and released few shots in the air close to the gate

The taxing seems to be breeding more touts looking for easy money

Anyone who lives in Lagos knows that's what these afonjas do...taxing Igbo businesses to eat, if not hunger will kill them. The agberos are the largest consumers of weed in the whole world.

lionness:
Kaduna built a dry port and it was started under El Rufai. The people in the state didn't lament or point fingers...instead they built a port. The energy you people use in crying and wailing is enough to build the SE of your dreams. So shut up and demand more from your governors

So na lagosian built apapa port Smh for this Awolowo boy

benben1000:


Can you open a thread and post what the minister said? When we say these things these afonjas think we are lying but deep in their hearts they know we are feeding them in this country, that's why they don't want us to go. The day Igbos will leave this country, Afonjas will be reduced to IDP camp; I'm telling you maka chukwu.

Guy! You can lie abeg!!!

We the Indigenous people of Oduduwa (IPO) under the leadership of Agbon Adeyinka Grandson say NO/YES to one indivisible SHIT-HOLE 9ja.

As you guys know that we are highly sophisticated in terms of advanced fees, wire wire, Oluwole certificate company that bleed over 50 professional for Odua Nation,highly rated hip-hop stars and pastors and skull mining business so we are not afraid of anybody or the breaking up of this SHIT-HOLE

We have the able men, we have the numbers and the swags to swap at the anything that will favor us so igbo can't and will never feed Odua nation

Shun tribalism.

All humans are a single specie. I have never heard that a coconut tree quarelled with a Mango tree for bearing different fruits.

I think trees are smarter than tribalists.

Oildichotomy:

Tell us something about this port we don't know already, so you think the dry port has helped to reduce the truck load in Lagos. The kaduna is like a northern park from Lagos.

Wetin concern you concern lagos port? Must u copy wat lagos do? If lagos no get port u no go build port? Be creative lyk Kaduna and do something different that can develop ur states. U said u wanted airport lyk lagos, u got it yet u prefer to use lagos airport to those in ur states, now u ar back cryin for a seaport. Before we knw it, u wud say u want dry port lyk Kaduna.
No worry nah, Ambode will coman build a seaport for you then el rufai will top it with a dry port. Bunch of pathetic dunderheads

nku5:


You wouldn't be able to understand this issue even if Bill Gates connected your brain to a Microsoft server database.

Bye

guy why are u wicked

nku5:


You wouldn't be able to understand this issue even if Bill Gates connected your brain to a Microsoft server database.

Bye

guy why are u wicked ......

benben1000:
Most of those trucks you see laden with goods are owned by Igbos from imported goods. We will flood the whole of Lagos with trucks, blocking every road until they open Port Harcourt port, Onne port, Calabar port, Warri and Onitsha port. Wicked things! They don't import nothing; all they do and know is collect state tax...sucking blood out of Igbos!

Deluded halfwit! Lagos that is already building another seaport, Ogun will start building its own and then Ondo state. Your ports will neva be functional in that region

Perceptor:

Deluded halfwit! Lagos that is already building another seaport, Ogun will start building its own and then Ondo state. Your ports will neva be functional in that region

Says an afonja that doesn't have one kobo. Tomorrow you will send me a private message how how you need 2000 naira for garri. Anumanu

Perceptor:

Wetin concern you concern lagos port? Must u copy wat lagos do? If lagos no get port u no go build port? Be creative lyk Kaduna and do something different that can develop ur states. U said u wanted airport lyk lagos, u got it yet u prefer to use lagos airport to those in ur states, now u ar back cryin for a seaport. Before we knw it, u wud say u want dry port lyk Kaduna.
No worry nah, Ambode will coman build a seaport for you then el rufai will top it with a dry port. Bunch of pathetic dunderheads

Who is this one? Dunderheads What does that even mean?

lionness:
Kaduna built a dry port and it was started under El Rufai. The people in the state didn't lament or point fingers...instead they built a port. The energy you people use in crying and wailing is enough to build the SE of your dreams. So shut up and demand more from your governors

so you think 'El ruplane' built boro port Huh?