Atiku Govt Will Fix Apapa-Oshodi Port Access Roads Menace in One Year, Says Peter Obi
*Laments importers pay extra $1,000 for any container shipped to Nigeria
The Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has expressed concerns over the hardship that Nigerians doing business at Apapa ports go through, saying this clearly shows that government is not working.
Atiku who was represented on the occasion of a meeting with maritime stakeholders in Apapa by his running mate in the 2019 election, Mr Peter Obi Wednesday night, said the gridlock was causing the importers a lot of losses.
Obi who attributed this to inefficiency in the system and lack of modern infrastructure said importers bringing goods into the country have been paying extra $1,000 for each container destined for Nigeria.
He said that the country loses as much as $20billion annually due to the problem.
Obi promised that if elected the administration of Atiku Ababakar will fix the gridlock and other issues affecting the ease of doing business at the nation’s ports in less than one year.
“How can you say Nigeria is working and you have an ease of doing business if the roads leading to your ports are in bad shape? It simply shows a government that is not working”
“For every goods you ship from anywhere in the world into Nigeria you pay additional $1,000, the reason why you are paying that is because of the inefficiency of Nigerian Ports.
“The ports today have not been expanded from what it was from when they were built, nobody has given them any attention and we are not even building new ones. Singapore was the busiest port in the world, and as it is, they are building the busiest and biggest port under the sea, this would start in 2050, but here we are not doing anything, we are busy making sure that the ones built is not working”
“The Apapa -Oshodi expressway is not more than 10km and it’s won’t take any serious government more than a year to fixed it, it’s not rocket science, but matter of incompetence and ineffective leadership”.
The Vice President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) in Dr. Kayode Farinto had identified the issue of bad road leading to the gridlock as among the problems being faced by port users.
Farinto said it was worrisome that despite the huge revenue being generated by the Customs in addition to what other agencies of government realize, the pitiable situation of doing business in Lagos ports has remained the same.
He urged the Atiku/Obi administration if voted into power to ensure that the menace in Lagos ports in terms of gridlock is addressed.
He also said there was the need to link the ports with rails to ease the congestion on the road.
Farinto equally called for the relocation of the tank farms in Apapa, adding that this remains a time bomb if the problem is not addressed.
The ANLCA Vice President also expressed dismay over the involvement of foreigners in clearing of goods in the nation’s ports, saying that was not applicable in other countries.
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