Gloria Odion, Maritime reporter 

Residents, motorists, port workers and business owners along Marine Road, off Liverpool Road in Apapa, Lagos, have raised the alarm over the rapid deterioration of the road, warning that its continued collapse could trigger a humanitarian, traffic and commercial crisis within Nigeria’s busiest port corridor.

The road, a critical access route serving residential communities, commercial establishments and port users, has developed extensive cracks and deep structural fissures, with large sections of the asphalt visibly sinking and showing signs of imminent failure.

A visit to the area revealed a disturbing scene of widening cracks stretching across the carriageway, while portions of the road have caved in, creating dangerous cavities that now threaten both motorists and pedestrians.

To avert accidents, residents have improvised temporary safety measures by placing concrete traffic drums and caution tapes around the failed sections.

However, they said these makeshift barriers offer little protection, especially at night when visibility is poor.

The situation has heightened fears that the continuous movement of heavy-duty trucks and articulated vehicles serving the ports could accelerate the road’s collapse.

Residents warned that if urgent intervention is not undertaken, Marine Road could become completely impassable, cutting off access to residential estates, business premises and key transport links along the Liverpool Road corridor, while worsening Apapa’s already notorious traffic congestion.

Beyond the safety concerns, the deteriorating road is disrupting daily economic activities.

Motorists are forced to manoeuvre around the failed sections, causing delays, while pedestrians navigate dangerously close to the collapsing edges.

Many residents attributed the worsening condition to recent heavy rainfall, noting that the cracks have expanded significantly, an indication that the underlying structure may have suffered extensive damage.

“This is no longer an ordinary pothole. The road is collapsing before our eyes. The cracks become wider every day, and everyone using this road fears the worst.

“If nothing is done urgently, we are simply waiting for a disaster,” one resident lamented.

Another commuter described the failed section as “a ticking time bomb,” warning that the weight of a heavily loaded truck or another bout of prolonged rainfall could trigger a complete collapse.

The worsening condition of Marine Road has also raised concerns about the potential impact on commercial activities within the Apapa port environment.

As one of the strategic access roads in the area, any disruption could impede the movement of cargo, workers and businesses that depend on the corridor.

Stakeholders have therefore appealed to the Apapa Local Government, the Lagos State Government, the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, and other relevant agencies to immediately conduct a comprehensive structural assessment of the damaged section and commence emergency reconstruction.

They argued that proactive intervention would not only safeguard lives and property but also prevent a more expensive and disruptive infrastructure failure with far-reaching economic consequences.

The residents further urged emergency management agencies to strengthen safety measures around the affected section pending permanent repairs.

For those who live and work along Marine Road, the consensus is clear: every day of delay increases the likelihood of a catastrophic collapse.

With the road surface continuing to sink and visible cracks widening by the day, they insist that immediate government intervention is imperative to avert what they describe as a looming disaster.

Gloria Odion Maritime reporter 

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, has charged Public Relations Officers (PROs) of the Service to embrace strategic, research-driven and impactful communication in promoting Customs reforms, strengthening institutional credibility and sustaining public confidence.

Adeniyi gave the charge on Friday, July 24th, 2026 at the closing ceremony of the 2026 Nigeria Customs Service Public Relations Conference held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The four-day conference, themed “Realigning Corporate Communication as a Strategic Driver of Institutional Effectiveness and Public Trust,” focused on repositioning corporate communication as a core management tool for enhancing institutional effectiveness and public trust.

Addressing participants, the Comptroller-General described the conference as a vital platform for reflection, professional development and institutional renewal at a critical stage of the Service’s transformation agenda.

He noted that communication has evolved beyond a support function to become a strategic driver of organisational success, stressing that reforms can only achieve their intended objectives when they are properly understood, accepted and trusted by the public.

“Across the world, communication has evolved from a support service into a strategic management function.

“Reforms cannot succeed unless they are understood, accepted and trusted by the people they are designed to serve,” Adeniyi said.

The Customs boss further observed that the rapid expansion of digital media, artificial intelligence and real-time information flow requires a more proactive, intelligence-led and research-based communication strategy.

He urged Customs spokespersons to communicate every policy, operational activity, reform initiative and enforcement action with professionalism, accuracy and purpose in order to reinforce public confidence in the Service.

Earlier, the Acting Zonal Coordinator of Zone ‘C’, Comptroller Pascal Chibuoke, described corporate communication as a strategic asset that shapes public perception, builds stakeholder confidence, promotes transparency and reinforces institutional legitimacy.

Also speaking, the National Public Relations Officer of the Service, Deputy Comptroller Abdullahi Maiwada, said the 2026 conference marked another milestone in the evolution of the Nigeria Customs Service’s corporate communication strategy.

He noted that the conference built on the successes of previous editions held in Lagos, Gwagwalada and Kano, adding that effective communication remains indispensable to the success of institutional reforms.

According to Maiwada, the conference was designed to develop practical solutions, strengthen professional networks and reposition public relations as a strategic corporate communication function within the Service.

In her closing remarks, the Customs Area Controller of Port Harcourt Area I Command, Comptroller Salamatu Atuluku, commended the Comptroller-General for his sustained commitment to capacity building and professional development.

She urged participants to deploy the knowledge and skills acquired during the conference to improve service delivery across their respective commands.

In separate goodwill messages, the President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Ike Neliaku, and the President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Alhassan Yahaya, applauded Adeniyi for institutionalising strategic communication within the Nigeria Customs Service.

They also challenged Public Relations Officers to uphold the highest standards of professionalism, ethical practice and effective stakeholder engagement in the discharge of their responsibilities.

The conference featured technical sessions on Customs modernisation, crisis communication, media intelligence, digital innovation, stakeholder engagement and emerging communication technologies, all aimed at strengthening the Service’s communication architecture and supporting its ongoing reform agenda.

Monday Discourse with Ibrahim Nasiru

When a policy looks beautiful in an Abuja press release but stalls completely on the port floor, look closely at who controls the practical flow of trade.

The ongoing battle over the National Single Window (NSW) isn’t a technical issue; it is a structural hostage situation.

And the bitter truth that nobody wants to say out loud is this: even with an independent Steering Committee and a functional support office in Apapa, the success of this digital window still relies on forcing the chief gatekeepers of our manual tollgates to surrender their empires.

History does not lie, and those with deep institutional memory know this movie very well.

We watched it during the Obasanjo era when the first serious conversations about a unified electronic trade window began.

We watched it when Rotimi Amaechi assumed duty as Transport Minister; he aggressively broke through the bureaucratic red tape to deliver the Deep Blue maritime security project and scaled our railway infrastructure, but his head hit a brick wall the moment he tried to enforce the Single Window.

We watched it again when Hadiza Bala Usman used every ounce of her administrative capital to push for automation, only to be systematically frustrated by a Customs hierarchy that treats manual paperwork as an untouchable birthright.

The plain reality is that these age-old, desk-to-desk procedures are not just administrative inefficiencies—they are fully entrenched strongholds.

Bypassing them means engaging in a direct duel with powerful bureaucratic interests who will deploy every administrative weapon available to protect their multi-billion Naira manual empires.

The mechanics of this trap are further complicated by a massive procurement chain trap controlled by insider collaborators.

These powerful individuals along the procurement line are completely uninterested in acquiring top-notch global systems with a proven track record of seamless delivery to users.

Instead, they actively hunt for complex, opaque IT systems that deliver the right returns to contractors and their own deep pockets, leaving the end-users with compromised, glitch-ridden platforms that preserve the old status quo.

While the Organised Private Sector—the real wealth creators like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), NACCIMA, and the various Chambers of Commerce—are desperately screaming for digital efficiency to bring down food inflation, a highly coordinated cartel of licensed customs agents secretly enjoys the manual chaos.

Chaos is their business model.

Physical, human interaction is where the compromise happens, where demurrage accumulates, and where under-the-table settlements are negotiated at the expense of national growth.

Every day, a container is delayed by a manual desk, ordinary Nigerians pay for it at the market square.

To expect the field bureaucracy of the Nigeria Customs Service to willingly bow to an external committee is a complete delusion.

Left to their own devices, they can drag their feet on API data integration, cite constant network failures, or engineer deliberate technical “glitches” to stall the rollout on the Port floor.

It will simply end in the classic “either our way or no way at all” Nigerian syndrome, rendering the Apapa support office an expensive, empty monument to a dead dream.

If the President genuinely wants the National Single Window to see the light of day, he cannot rely on the “cooperation” of the agencies it is designed to discipline.

It is not enough for FIRS or the NSIA to manage the server.

This project must be driven with an iron fist directly from the cockpit of the Presidency, backed by independent technocrats, and enforced by strong-willed executive administrators who answer only to the Commander-in-Chief.

You do not ask a cartel to peacefully integrate into a security system designed to watch its own bank.

Until the Presidency strictly polices and enforces absolute compliance on the Port floor, Nigeria’s international trade remains a hostage to convenience.

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, a public affairs Analyst, writes from Abuja