Onuesoke condemns Lagos ports congestion, calls for decentralization of sea ports

By Atevure Princess,

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain and former governorship aspirant in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has condemned the congestion presently experience in both Apapa and Tin-Can Wharf road in Lagos State.

Onuesoke who disclosed that he was trapped in traffic gridlock for over four hours while going to Apapa Wharf to transact business, told Journalist in Lagos that the only solution to the problem is to open up other sea ports in south east and south-south part of the country.

Lamenting the state of the dilapidated roads to the two seaports, the PDP strongman wondered why roads leading to the only Nigerian operating port that is generating about fifty percent of the nation revenue should be abandons to the extent that it is difficult for trucks conveying cargoes to assess.

He argued Nigeria must be losing both man hours and millions of Naira   daily as a result of traffic gridlock on the road leading to the ports and congestion in the ports.

This situation, according to Onuesoke, portends grave danger for the Nigerian economy, as it will trigger inflation and further discourage importers from choosing Nigeria as the port of destination.

Apart from construction of the access roads to the ports, Onuesoke advised that Government should, as a matter of urgency, deploy traffic and security personnel in a large number to Apapa to ensure a free flow of traffic on the road to the port, stressing that the traffic officials should work in shifts so that they can have twenty hours a day presence on the road.

He argued that the main reason why the port in Lagos is congested is because it is the only port serving a country of over 210million people, adding that it is an embarrassing reality that the Federal Government abandoned Onne, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Warri, Sapele and Koko among other ports that would have served other parts of country.

Advising the government to open other ports in the country, Onuesoke stated, “Those who sold the idea to our leaders that the ports in Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar and Koko among others should be abandoned and focused only on Lagos alone must have miscalculated. I suspected that those ports were abandoned because they wanted to corner all imports into Nigeria to Lagos alone and through it make Lagos indispensable to any economic activity in the country. Their plan has worked and has served Lagos state well, but it has strangulated the rest of Nigeria.”