It is estimated that an average of six million commuter’s transit from the Lagos mainland to Lagos Island daily.
This was disclosed by the Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunimbe Mamora, during the inauguration of a jetty at the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos on Saturday.
According to him, the Tin Can Island Port would take off two million commuters from the Lagos gridlock daily.
What the minister is saying
The minister said that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had promised that no part of the country would suffer any neglect, owing to its geographical location or political affiliation.
The former senator said that the inauguration of the new jetty would address the menace of pollution and siltation that had been affecting water transportation in Lagos.
He said, “It is estimated that an average of six million commuter’s transit from the Lagos mainland to Lagos Island daily.
“Which equally takes travel time of about three hours, whereas ferry transportation, through the inland waterways, will take thirty 30 minutes to reach the destination.
“This means of transportation will equally take off about two million commuters from the Lagos gridlock.’’
Mamora said that the project was approved in the fourth quarter of 2018, with the aim of addressing the menace of pollution, which had been a major problem hampering water transportation on some of the ferry routes in Lagos.
“The intervention by the Federal Government on the construction of the jetty will bring about a huge relief and assuage the fear of erosion and other ecological challenges in the Tin Can area.
“Hence, NIWA had identified the CMS – Mile 2, as the busiest ferry route, with high pollution rate along the river banks, as well as siltation along the ferry channel.’’
The minister said that these challenges had negatively affected ferry services as marine litter and the shallow channels had made service operators to avoid those routes.
He noted that the dream, however, was to resuscitate, upgrade the existing jetties and make the ferry route operational through the removal of silt and solid wastes along the channels.
The Managing Director of NIWA, Dr George Moghalu said the Iko community were the major beneficiaries of the Federal Government project.
While addressing the community leaders, who graced the commissioning, Moghalu appealed to them to see the project as their own and they should manage and protect it.
“One thing we have noticed is that in spite of the limited resources available to government, it develops projects, but people disregard and mismanage them, and at the end of the day turn back to blame the government.
He further stated that they have received enough support from the government of the day, and the government is desirous of making water transportation, particularly inland water transportation, a means of choice for the movement of goods and services.
No number of jetties could bring back the sanity of life of the early 1970s as enjoyed by those living in Lagos State. Mamora and the other eggheads of the state know this is true, but the amount of money that keeps pouring into the coffers of the state on daily basis will not allow them to speak the truth.
The economy of Nigeria has been dependent on imports since the 1970s, and the Federal(?) The government had always preferred the two seaports of Lagos as the destination for about 75% of all incoming cargo to the country. For a country comprising 200 million people, it is not difficult to understand why Lagos has become the hell-hole that it is today.
The Federal(?) as well as Ogun and Oyo state governments ought to have sat down about 12 years ago when I’d first proposed some of the following solutions to the debacle Lagos has been experiencing since the early 1970s; to fashion out ways of decongesting the state, by constructing at least six major highways/rail lines to link Lagos State and it’s two immediate neighbouring states of Ogun and Oyo.
I had suggested that these states should be assisted to develop their critical infrastructure to enable them to attract people who work and live in Lagos State away from Lagos and yet enable them to commute to and from their offices in Lagos to the comfort of their homes in their new states of residence.
For example, if the journey between Lagos and Oyo State could be reduced to less than 45 minutes and made comfortable and affordable, it would encourage Lagosians to relocate to those states. The real estate industry and other sectors of the economy of those states could benefit from this development. The demand is there, what is lacking is the supply side. We must learn to create jobs and opportunities by stimulating the demand side and growing the economy of the country. This is the way it is done in developed economies.
Today, the most urgent thing the Federal(?) Government should do remains to rejig the seaports at Warri, Port Harcourt and Calabar and position them to cater to the needs of importers in the eastern and northern parts of the country and sharing out some of the incoming cargo bound for Lagos to them. The natural deep-sea port at Onne and that proposed for Koko should be left to handle bulk freight only. A good network of roads and fast-moving rail lines should be built from those ports to market hubs across the country. That should open up the economies of those regions and boost development and employment.
Bringing the Ajaokuta Steel Company to function should be a priority as it could assist in the production of rail lines/rail-mounted fuel tankers, rail trucks assembly plants and the fabrication of tools and equipment for the various industries that support the railway system. As a result, our highways will last longer since those trailers and oil tankers that ply them will gradually disappear.
This development will enhance the quality of the health condition of the Lagosian as journeys will take less time to complete and the congestion that causes the stress conditions of those living in Lagos will be reduced. The neighbouring states of Ogun, Oyo and possibly Ondo will experience an economic boom and huge opportunities for industrial growth and increased job opportunities will follow.
These are some of the possibilities I’d seen coming to life in the manifesto of Buhari’s APC if they had kept to their promises but alas, they have all turned out to be lies meant to garner votes and Nigerians are the worse for it.
The previous commenter forgets that’s if Ogun or Oyo or Lagos have insufficient transport routs maybe it’s because the money was used to pay the perks and bonuses of the NURTW state branches.