Punch Editorial
PERHAPS the saddest narrative about Nigeria’s rapid descent into utter disorder and lawlessness is its loss of value for human life. It is a tragedy shared by all states, including Lagos, the so-called centre of excellence. Recently, two lives – Chidinma Ajoku, 27, and Chima Nnaekpe, 29 – both employees of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria were brutally lost in Lagos to a 20-foot container – large metal box used for shipment, storage and movement of goods – which fell off a flatbed truck and on a bus taking them home after work. It also crushed all the promise of great things they could achieve and give to humanity. Any commuter could have been Chidinma Ajoku, too.
Ajoku, for instance, had secured admission to undertake an MBA at a university in England but had to defer it to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tragically, she was killed by the one thing she dreaded the most. Her brother, Obinna, narrated how his sister had signed a petition in 2018 to restrict the movement of container-laden trucks in Lagos State between the hours of 11pm and 5am and urged her friends to sign in a bid to push the number up, because of her fear of being crushed by a truck or container. He told of how she cringed each time she was in a vehicle that was too close to a container-laden truck. She was killed by her worst fear.
Worryingly, Lagos has an ugly history of similar deaths. According to data captured by a research firm, SBM Intelligence, there have been no fewer than 95 fallen tanker incidents in Lagos since mid-August 2010. The report does not include fallen container incidents and according to a researcher involved in compiling the data, many incidents involving trucks are hardly reported except when they claim casualties.
On September 2, 2015, a 40-foot container-laden articulated vehicle fell off the Ojuelegba Bridge, flattening a car under the bridge and killing the three occupants in it. In June 2018, a container fell off a trailer on the same bridge, crushing three commercial buses and a saloon car. Three persons died in the incident, with many others injured. On September 16, 2019, a container also fell off a trailer onto a car at Agric Bus Stop, Ikorodu, killing two persons. Putting this crudely, it means human lives are regularly offered as sacrifices for state failure.
One of the most horrifying accounts yet is that of Monica Onokah. She was getting onto a commercial motorcycle at FESTAC when a trailer overbalanced and emptied its container on the road. The motorcyclist escaped unhurt, but Onokah was unlucky: her legs were trapped under it. When all efforts to move the container failed, those struggling to rescue her hacked her legs off with a machete in a desperate attempt to free her. She bled to death before she reached the hospital.
Death is imminent for all, but no one deserves to die like that, especially when it can be helped by the state.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, needs to end the harvest of needless deaths in the state. We understand the peculiarity of the situation Lagos has found itself, considering its geographical location as a port city, but we cannot ignore the glaring failure of governance that accentuated the challenges. There are six major seaports in the country — Apapa Port; Tin Can Island Port (both in Lagos); Port Harcourt Port, Onne Port (both in Rivers State), Calabar Port and Warri Port (or Delta Port) — but the Lagos ports are overstretched while at least three others are underutilised.
Add this to the inadequacy and vandalism of pipelines built for conveying petroleum products, abysmal state of the roads, an almost nonexistent rail transport and you have hellish gridlock with seemingly endless lines of trucks and a society in utter chaos.
Yet, there is a subsisting law in Lagos banning the movement of trailers between 6am and 9pm, aimed at reducing traffic and ensuring that trucks do not compete with other vehicles during peak periods. But like everything in the care of government, the law suffers neglect and is only remembered when politicians see the need for rhetoric, usually after a tragic incident involving a trailer or its container. For instance, the state government has promised to arrest and prosecute the driver and owner of the truck responsible for the death of Ajoku and Nnaekpe but repeatedly, such accidents have happened and no offender has been rigorously prosecuted or punished.
For every law, there is at least a body saddled with the responsibility to implement it. In Lagos, apart from the police, there are at least three of such agencies claiming to be working to enforce traffic regulations and reduce deaths, injuries and economic losses on roads – the Federal Road Safety Corps, the Vehicle Inspection Service and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority. The FRSC says its vision is to eradicate road traffic crashes and create a safe motoring environment in Nigeria, adding that it is “charged with preventing or minimising accidents on the highway, among other responsibilities.” The VIS in Lagos – a directorate in the state Ministry of Transportation – has “responsibility for inspecting, controlling, regulating and enforcing the roadworthiness of motor vehicles in the state.” Like others, LASTMA seeks to “develop a culture of regulation, control and management of traffic operations state wide: and to ensure hitch free traffic flow on Lagos roads.” As stated on its website, its vision statement is to “reduce deaths, injuries and economic losses through road traffic accidents, conflicts, congestion and delays on the public highways in Lagos State by employing modern traffic management techniques…” Clearly, all three have failed miserably. They are more focused on either revenue generation, bribe collection or both.
Widespread corruption within these agencies and in the system encourages officers to allow rickety trucks, some with worn out tyres flapping repetitively to the movement of the vehicles, ply the highways. Many trailer drivers are a law unto themselves and fail to obey the basic traffic rules and regulations while the agencies responsible for safeguarding lives on the roads have certainly lost the plot. A 2018 Road Safety Report on Nigeria based on FRSC data as published by the International Road Traffic and Accident Database, said “around one percent of fatal crashes are due to drink driving.” In 2017, inappropriate or excessive speed was reported as the main contributing factor in 44 percent of fatal crashes.
There is a thin line between anarchy and order. To be blunt, it is time to admit that the Nigerian society has crossed that line. Even a 2019 presidential directive ordering the immediate removal of all trucks from bridges and roads in the Apapa area, the epicentre of the chaos caused by trucks in the state, failed. It is another testament to how low we have retarded as a country.
But we have not gone too far to totally get lost. Author, Roy Bennett, says, “Do what is right, not what is easy nor what is popular.” Since the Federal Government has shown it lacks the political will or expertise to solve the problem, Sanwo-Olu, will have to see it as his fight. In the United States, which practises a presidential system similar to Nigeria’s, governors show strong leadership in matters where the president appears to be unbothered. Sanwo-Olu should understand that leadership goes beyond only offering assurances on TV, and get down to the business of protecting the people. His administration can take a cue from the Department of Transport in the United Kingdom, which has a Code of Practice on Safety of Loads on Vehicles with penalties including up to 10 years imprisonment and fines running into thousands of pounds for dangerous driving and/or traffic offences that cause death, pollution, etc. But these do not just exist on paper; they are enforced.
Twist lock is the common type of lock system for securing containers on freight trucks. Drivers and their employers should be held responsible for the safety of the container as it leaves its base and travels to its destination. The driver must physically check that the locks are secure while the FRSC should ensure that vehicles that do not meet the basic safety rules are disallowed from plying the road.
If the existing laws are not stiff enough, make them stiffer and enforce them. No one should be treated as a sacred cow, especially when human life is at stake. The death of George Floyd in the US pushed the boundaries in the fight against deep racial fissures in that society. This is exactly what Ajoku would have wanted.