SPECIAL FOCUS: The Endangered Lagos Wood Business

If you are a Lagos resident or even a visitor and you’ve crossed the Third Mainland Bridge (linking the mainland with the island), you may have seen geometrically arranged logs of wood floating on the water on the right side of the bridge and wondered why they are there, who they belong to and how they stay afloat.

The Okobaba wood market in Ebute-Metta is a multi-billion Naira industry with impact that stretches far beyond the borders of Lagos state and employs thousands. Investigations show that the market has been around since the 1930s and despite little to no government support, has expanded exponentially. Now, it employs thousands and supplies wood for use in places as far away as Nigeria’s capital, Abuja and even to neighbouring countries. The merchants say it’s a “good business” for anyone who is honest and patient enough to stick it out. Or at least, it was. Now, rising costs, the absence of infrastructure, and deforestation threaten the survival of this bustling hub of activity and commerce, say the key players of the business.
The logs belong to different groups of people, each marked differently for identification. They are sectioned into rafts by wires and timber dogs and are sitting on the water because they’re waiting to be sold. The female logs float and the male, sink, and one raft could cost anywhere between N250,000 and N500,000. The logs mark one of the entrance points of Oko Baba market, a sprawling space that deals in every aspect of the business of wood: rolling, chopping, buying and selling.
“I can tell you authoritatively that this business [in Oko Baba] employs more than 10,000 persons and economically it is doing a lot in Lagos, even in Nigeria as a whole. They come from Abuja to buy these logs to build houses, from [the] East, they come here. They depend on us here,” one of the wood merchants told a Nigerian newspaper in an interview.
The money-men sustaining this log business are referred to as ‘sawyers’. Sawyers finance bush contractors, who go into the forests of Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Ondo and Delta to fell wood. It’s their money that makes the whole system work. On average, it costs around three million naira to send a group of eight bush contractors into the forest. “Without the sawyers, this business will not exist,” a respondent admits. “The sawyers take the risks in this business by bringing out their money to send people to the forest. It can take between three months and a year to complete the process of felling trees and transporting the logs to the Lagos market.”

After the wood is taken out of the forest, it’s transported to Lagos by towing boats. The journey is a long one. Towers (as they’re called) battle against the elements, the tide, militants and other life-threatening danger, in their small but sturdy tug boats, that can take up to 2,500 logs of wood lifted at I,500 naira each. Sometimes, they are in transit for three months, using up to 92 drums of diesel and feeding on fried beef, dried fish, soup, rice, beans and cassava flour. These old tug boats are very mechanical and often develop engine trouble which the crew members, usually four, rally to fix. The boats are locally constructed with wood by builders, and then a second-hand trailer engine, sourced from any of the automobile parts’ markets in Lagos, is installed. On one trip, expenses could average between three and a half and four million naira.

If everything goes according to plan, the boats berth in Lagos at a bridge opposite Oko Baba to the relief of the sawyers who have waited anxiously for their arrival. The consignment is now divided into rafts. A raft consists of 36 or 42 pieces of wood and can be sold for anywhere between N250,000 and N500,000.

The Challenges Ahead
Despite having produced silent millionaires over the decades, there are growing numbers of issues that threaten the very survival of the business. Among which are the skyrocketing cost of running business in Nigeria, especially the energy (diesel) cost, bad roads, poor infrastructure, little governmental support, as well as outdated machines. There is also global concern! Deforestation in Nigeria is a serious problem with the UN reporting that Nigeria is one of the top ten countries in the world with the highest rates of deforestation. As a nation, Nigeria relies heavily on wood, particularly for energy, but loses about 350,000 to 400,000 hectares of land a year, to deforestation. Further rapid deforestation could prove devastating.

One other major concern is the incessant fire-outbreaks in the business community. The Oko Oba sawmill is one of the biggest sawmills in Nigeria, contributing about 80 to 90 per cent of woods used in Lagos State. Located at the Lagos lagoon in Ebute Metta, the sawmill section accommodates over 2,000 sawmill operators and is meant to sustain the supply chain in the entire metropolis.

In the last three years, traders have counted losses after fire blazed through the market destroying property that some claimed can’t be less than N2 billion. In one of such incidences recently, some traders alleged the fire started due to the negligence of people who lit a fire in another section of the market but didn’t care to properly put it out. The fire was then blown by the wind to the sawmill area where they have sawdust.
“The fire started near the sawmill and from there it caught logs already lined up for sawing and then burning down almost the whole market.

“There is nothing remaining in the market. We were even informed that a trader had a stroke because he lost his money there. He almost jumped into the fire when he heard about the unfortunate incident,” a trader laments.

Relocation Plans
The state government had previously unveiled plans to relocate the saw millers at Okobaba to Agbowa-Ikosi site in Ikorodu following the recurrent fire outbreaks. The Lagos State Government also revealed that it has plans to embark on a comprehensive regeneration of the old site in Ebute Metta.

The State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Idris Salako, said the government was waiting for the relocation to Agbowa timber village before saddling the state’s Urban Renewal Agency (LASURA) with the new task. But the saw millers’ relocation remained unresolved; years after the Mainland saw millers’ association signed a memorandum for resettlement in Agbowa, Ikorodu, with the former governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola.

However, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has, during a recent official visit to the new site, assured the timber traders that the state government has revisited the project by re-mobilizing the contractor back on the site.
The Governor, joined by his deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, and Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Idris Salako, also inspected a 1,500 tons per hour brickette plant built on the site by Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), which will enable the conversion of mill’s byproduct to combustible brick materials for industrial use.
He said: “This project has been on for years, but we are happy that our own Government has brought it back. We have invested a lot of resources to be able to bring it to a useable level. Part of the facilities we have put in place for the potential Oko Baba saw millers that will be moving here is 160 units of two-bedroom flats that have been completed. We also have offices in their various shades that have been built. The other amenity built on this site is a brickette plant facility which will be managed by LAWMA.

“The leaders of Oko Baba saw millers’ association are excited and are willing to relocate to the site. The ship piles where ships will be berthing have been done. What is left is to clear the trailer path for the saw millers, and put up a police post and a fire service. In this regard, we are making additional funding available to the contractor to ensure that before the end of this year, we all should sing Hallelujah and bring everybody down here. It’s been a very long journey, but our administration is committed to bringing the long wait to an end.”

By: SUNDAY ADEDEJI