THE motion raised by Senator Oluremi Tinubu on the floor of the Senate recently about the need for the Federal Government to expedite action on the rehabilitation of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway must be seen as a national priority.

The Apapa Express conundrum has been compounded by the collapsed sections of the expressway at the Isolo area, which has led to the fall of many containers and trucks. That road has become a favourite den of traffic snarl robbers and hoodlums who seize the opportunity of the chaotic atmosphere and lack of law enforcement to dispossess road users of their belongings.

The importance of the expressway, the main land transport corridor into the Apapa Ports, cannot be over-emphasised. This is an area that hosts so many industrial estates, military/security installations and barracks, media establishments, petroleum tank farms and depots. More importantly, Apapa is the nation’s number one economic theatre in which the bulk of the nation’s non-oil revenue is derived through port operations and activities.

It is the importance of this zone to the economy of the nation that draws all manner of tankers, trucks, trailers and lorries from all over Nigeria for evacuation of goods for onward delivery to all sections of the country. The poor state of the roads and bridges, which have been neglected over the past two decades, creates a nightmarish experience for those who visit, live or work in Apapa and its adjoining districts.

Nigeria is, perhaps, the only country that toys with a goose that lays the golden egg that feeds the nation through non-oil revenue.

We, therefore, call on the Muhammadu Buhari administration to ensure that the section of the expressway covering the Tin Can Island Ports, the internal roads within the ports as well as the stretch from Cele Bus Stop to Oworonshoki are reconstructed immediately.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government must also play its part, by enforcing traffic regulations and ensuring that the trucks, tankers and trailers that invade the state daily have enough space in waiting bays from where they can move to load their products in an orderly manner.

The Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA), which went to sleep when it was asked to stop impounding vehicles illegally, must wake up. The federal and Lagos State governments are now under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and must combine efforts to resolve the Apapa traffic nightmare.