December 31, 2014 – Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has described traffic gridlock on the Oshodi-Apapa road as a federal problem, adding that it is a symptom of failure of ports and oil management, which he said is a federal responsibility.
Fashola who was addressing State House Correspondent on State of the nation which had in attendant General Manager of Vanguard, Mr. Gbenga Adefaya, General Manager, Sun Newspaper, Mr. Femi Adesina, Chairman Nigerian Union of Journalists, Lagos, Mr. Deji Elumoye and Chairman Editorial Board of Nation Newspaper, Mr. Sam Omaseye said about 4,000 trucks converge on the affected road on a daily basis, made up of 3,000 tankers whose main business is to haul fuel, diesel or kerosene and 1,000 trailers is to deliver rice and vegetable to the people of Lagos state.
According to him, merely building the road will solve the problem only on the short run but that it will collapse later on adding that the best thing to do is to move fuel and vegetable on the rail, stressing that tankers and trucks are not found on the road in advanced countries.
He explained the rail tracks have already being laid by Nigeria’s ex-colonial masters adding that what is required is the political will to move those items on the rail.
On security, Fashola said that he still believes that what Nigeria needs is state police adding that those who argue against it on the basis that it would be used by politicians to witch hunt opponents value politicians more than human lives.
He said that it is erroneous to believe that about 500,000 policemen can police a nation of about 170 million people, which he described as a massive deficiency. He said that what civilian Joint Task Force has achieved with the security situation in the North-east is indicative of what a state police can do.
According to him, state police could make way for intelligence gathering adding that it will be the greatest gift to Nigeria if all that a state police is empowered to do is take care of domestic violence like rape, child abuse, traffic and sanitation.
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