22092020 - S-Kaduna: No development without peace, unity— BUHARI

Vanguard, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 —17
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Explosion in Beirut:
Explosives in Lagos
IT started with one truck
parked outside the gate of the
Tin Can Port, Apapa, Lagos
because the truck park was full.
The next day, two more trucks
parked on the road awaiting their
turn to lift cargo. The park was
busy and so were the factories for
wheat, sugar and cement (rebags,
etc). Before long, and as Nigeria's
appetite for imports grew, more
and more trucks parked on all the
roads leading to the ports on the
flyovers, under the flyovers from
Iganmu to Surulere, to Lawanson,
on the Second Mainland Bridge,
Eko Bridge creating a truck park
that has almost strangled port
activity. The trucks drove most
residents in Apapa away.
The cry to clear this horror has
been shrill and long, but there is
no respite. Why? Lagos State
government claims that the
bridges and roads leading to the
ports are federal roads and
therefore they can do nothing
much about it. A Trumpian lie.
Then they blame the Nigerian
Ports Authority for the truck
gridlock. The NPA may be guilty
of all sorts of things, but you
cannot blame them for the pillage
on Lagos roads.
Lagos State Government
benefits substantially from the
ports even if it does not own equity
in it (we have always argued that
Lagos State is entitled to equity in
the airports and Lagos ports.)
Are there factories inside the
ports in Lagos? What kind of
factories? If so, is it not time to
decommission these factories and
move them elsewhere. Lagos is the
main port of Nigeria, bringing in
fertilisers (ammonium nitrate) and
storing them and other
inflammable imports at the ports,
including petroleum products and
tank farms. The explosion in
Lebanon was caused by the blow
up of ammonium nitrate
(fertiliser) at the ports.
Ideally several truck parks
should be built outside
Lagos(Mombasa, Eritrea, Angola,
etc., have new state-of-the-art port
facilities) and trucks should only
be on the road to go to the ports,
pick up cargo quickly and leave.
The NPA has to be ready to release
cargo, as it has promised ad
infinitum, within 24hours of cargo
landing in the ports. Accelerated
clearing of goods must be a
priority for all engaged in this
business.
Is Lagos secure? Can it blow up
like Beirut? Most definitely. We do
have fertilisers in the ports. We have
other inflammable materials. To
ask the NPA to be more transparent
in its operations is to speak as a
fool. But the dangers persist. Let us
build a scenario. If one of those
trucks parked jowl-to-cheek were
to catch fire, every truck on all
those roads from Apapa, second
bridge, Iganmu, Badagry road,
etc., would catch fire because they
cannot move and each has fuel
tanks. The fire would be quick and
compulsive, burning nearby petrol
stations, tank farms and even the
ports themselves with all their
factories, etc. I believe that most
of Apapa, Surulere, Badagry road,
Festac Town, Alaba, etc., would be
at risk.
While on this subject of fire, has
it occurred to anyone that South
West Ikoyi is a fire hazard? It was
built as a residential area, but like
all things in Nigeria, good
intentions succumb to
unfathomable greed. One day we
saw one shop in Awolowo Road
then another, then offices, petrol
stations, etc. There is a military
arms and explosive dump in
Dodan Barracks. There are 10
petrol stations on Awolowo Road.
When an area has been planned
for a particular purpose should we
Having noticed what
has happened in
Beirut, please let us do
something to clear the
roads of Lagos before
we all get blown up
not try to maintain that purpose?
The most dangerous area of
Nigeria is still the ports. Suppose
Nigeria is fighting a war with
Benin and Togo or any other
country. Our ammunition stocks
are low and we have ships at the
ports to re-equip our army. The
ports are jammed because of the
trucks. The military cannot be
resupplied. What do we do? Or
suppose a dissident group was to
fire-bomb those trucks?
The problem can be solved. A few
years ago Mr President threatened
to come on a state visit to Lagos.
Apart from the usual preparation
of school children, after hours of
drill, learning to sing for the
President while waving flags
welcoming him, something
extraordinary happened.
Every single truck parked on all
those flyovers, all trucks blocking
Apapa, Iganmu, Badagry road,
etc., was removed. The Lagos State
government announced the closure
of a good number of roads from
Ikeja to Lagos. Of course the
airport was closed to all traffic. All
trucks on Airport Road were
removed.
The President came. He flew
from the airport to the State
House, thus depriving the children
the opportunity to show Lagos
hospitality. Mercifully he did not
spend the night. He returned to
Abuja. My plane from Lagos to
Abuja was delayed for six hours!!
Who pays for all those trucks
causing the gridlock outside the
ports? The owners of the trucks are
paid by the importers who simply
add the cost to the price they sell
the goods which you and I have to
pay for, thus keeping inflation high.
The trucks/trailers clogging the
roads make travelling to work and
around slow, more expensive and
dangerous. And again, we pay for
it. If you spend eight hours in traffic
daily, it is eight hours you could
have done productive work. The
tedium of the delay affects your
mental state, causing stress and
other psychological problems that
will impact on our health and
economy.
Finally, having noticed what has
happened in Beirut, please let us
do something to clear the roads of
Lagos before we all get blown up.
The Lagos airport is in a similar
danger to the existence of Lagos
considering hundreds of petrol
tankers parked on the airport
roads waiting to be supplied from
the airport flow stations. If one of
those trucks catches fire and the
tank farms are ablaze can the fire
be contained?
What kind of contract did Lagos
sign with China stopping it from
finishing the railway and the 12-
lane road to Badagry and Seme?
China has shown its ability to carry
out such projects in Luanda,
Mozambique, Mombasa, Somali,
Eritea; why not Nigeria?
What we need in Nigeria is a
whole reconstruction of the supply
routes to the ports, consisting of
first class secure roads, trailers
parks, hotel, etc. The people of
Lagos have suffered enough. They
demand and deserve better
facilities. Government must meet
its standards and promises. If not,
there is always the vote.
People who live in Lagos must
rise up to the dangers they face.
Five years ago, it took most
workers one or two hours to get to
work and back. Today, it takes five
to six hours for the same trip; why?
Why should you vote for a
government that punishes you so?
Their pedigree would show that
they can do better. LSDPC is now a
shadow of its former self. People
could vote for Alhaji Lateef
Jakande because he did what he
promised.
He built new schools and stopped
children having to go to school in
two streams, morning and
afternoon, so that you found
children returning from school as
late as 10 or 11pm. You could get
a house for N30,000. He repeated
this feat in Abuja when he was
Minister of Works. When he fell out
with SDP he left the party and the
people of Lagos followed him. He
remodelled schools, paid teachers,
controlled Lagos traffic, built
estates and roads fulfilling the old
electoral jingle of life more
abundant: indeed life is now short
and brutish and insecure; and
Lagos is liable to massive
conflagration.
As if that is not enough, Lagos
may also be extinguished by refuse
and chemical and human waste.
We cannot wait for the land fills
before opening near truck parks
but the landfills system of LASMA
is outdated and corruption-ridden.
Lagos still pollutes all the water
around it by dumping waste from
soakaways in the lagoon. All the
factories in Lagos do the same
because Lagos has no plans for
liquid waste. If the ports do not get
you, Alausa will.
Tackling insecurity through media and police synergy
By AYINDE IJADUNOLA
THE third president of the United
States of America, Thomas Jefferson,
said if he was asked to choose between a
government without newspapers and
newspapers without a government, he
would not hesitate to pick the latter. His
was an extreme libertarian expression of
the view that the media was indispensable
if democracy was to have its full course
and benefit the people maximally. But we
must understand where Jefferson was
coming from.
He was one of the founding fathers of
the United States. And in his days,
emancipation, freedom, liberty, rights of
the people more than the rights of
government were what dominated the
conversation in the society.
Given the experience of the colonies at
the hand of imperial England in the 18th
century, the Americans believed that less
oppressive government and more media
which would champion the rights and
voice of the people was needed. But as I
said earlier, it was a farfetched view.
Now, if Jefferson would take such a
position in a contest between the media
and government, where would he stand if
the equation featured the media and the
Police? Would he prefer a nation which
would exist without this law and order
agency? Or the Police without a nation?
Or a nation running at full throttle with
the backing of the media and the Police?
Last week, the Police chief in Lagos,
Hakeem Odumosu, offered a better
version of the Jefferson puzzle along with
a much improved arrangement of how
society should operate for the greatest
good of the greatest number of citizens.
Police Commissioner Odumosu presented
the picture of journalists and the Police
coming together to render priceless
service to Nigerians. He has given the
nation a strategic synergy that can assist
the society defeat the scourge of insecurity
threatening to swallow us and reverse all
the advances our nascent democracy has
made over the years, even as we prepare
for the diamond jubilee of our
Independence.
Odumosu’s contribution to the
discourse was captured in a statement
released to the press by the Public
Relations Officer, Lagos Command of the
Police, PPRO, Muyiwa Adejobi. The CP
was quoted as calling for "partnership
between the Police and media
professionals to strengthen security in
Lagos”. Adejobi said:” CP Hakeem
Odumosu…charged the fourth estate of
the realm to partner in strengthening the
security architecture of Lagos State and
Nigeria at large…He urged the media to
always project the country, Nigeria and
the police in a positive light as their views
count on the rating of the Nigerian polity.”
Odumosu spoke when the General
Manager of the Nigerian Television
Authority, NTA, Channel 10, Adegbirin
Kamarudeen, visited him.
So, whereas about three centuries ago a
concerned public officer sought the
exclusion of a state institution and the sole
employment of the press to preserve
society and its people, another public
office holder several generations after is
asking for collaboration between two
critical institutions. It’s impossible to
challenge CP Odumosu’s thesis that the
society needs the gentlemen of the press in
the two-fold business of securing the nation
and restoring its severely battered image.
The point is that what is generally given
to the people as the achievements of
government and its agencies or institutions
starts with what sociologists and analysts
describe as perceptions, interpretations
and ‘coloured’ reportage in the media.
True, this reportage is a reflection of the
productive forces in a given setting.
However, in the long run, in the course of
Nigeria’s greatest challenge is
insecurity and all arms of the
state, notably those who
reportour activities for today and
posterity, must be respectably
brought into the loop of
protecting the country and its
people
processing the reports a lot can take place.
For instance, there can be a ‘tendentious’
headline that buries the ‘virtues’ of an event
credited to government deep in the belly
of the story which an impatient reader
would not arrive at before forming an
opinion. Editors don’t mean mischief
when this happens. All what they may
doing is to satisfy core professional
demands. But, as Odumosu observes, a
pact can be struck between the media and
strategic bodies of the state to let
newsmen key into a larger vision of
combining their professional ethics with
nation-building goals. The reporter must
be allowed to go about his duties, but it is
within the bigger context of serving the
nation with his skills. But how does this
relate with the security of the nation?
What’s the connection between the Police
and the journalist? What’s the nexus that
Odumosu thinks should be strengthened?
There is only one answer to these posers.
The media represents the Fourth Estate of
the Realm, after the Executive, Legislative
and Judiciary. These three are all arms of
government that are responsible for the
upkeep and security of the state. But
although these media personnel are
‘independent’ of the state, they are needed
to produce what emerges as the
perceptions and realities in the country
through reporting the activities of those
other official arms.
These realities and perceptions are the
tools that make or mar and influence the
image and security situation in any
nation. Nigeria can dwell heavily on what
Hakeem Odumosu is proposing as the
panacea for the insecurity in the land. The
country’s greatest challenge is insecurity
and all arms of the state, notably those
who reportour activities for today and
posterity, must be respectably brought into
the loop of protecting Nigeria and its
people. Surely, it will be a death knell for
Nigeria’s insecurity if the country’s
journalists and the Police would come
together in a coordinated onslaught on
the criminals in our midst.
•Ijadunola, a social commentator,
wrote from Lagos
C
M
Y