Daily Independent (Lagos)
24 September 2009
editorial
Lagos — The Minister of Transport, Ibrahim Bio, recently announced the Federal Government's decision to spend an additional N6 billion to complete the Ajaokuta-Warri railway project, previously abandoned by the main contractor, Julius Berger Plc, over alleged non-payment for completed jobs on the project. He said the FG had finally settled the previous outstanding balance of N6.5 billion owing to the contractor.
The 22-kilometre portion of the project, stretching from Ovu to Warri, can now be completed, the minister said. Preliminary work, such as aerial survey and mapping, has already begun. The tracks will also be extended to the Delta Steel Company jetty.
The Itakpe (Ajaokuta)-Warri railway line, when completed, will help to modernise the nation's obsolete rail system and reduce the present unusual pressure on roads. Water and rail transport are traditionally the cheapest means of bulk transportation. Thus, the absence of inland waterway transport and a functional modern rail system has meant almost total reliance on road transport for even heavy-duty haulage, a major cause of the short life span and high maintenance cost of most highways in the country.
It is unfortunate that the Ajaokuta-Warri rail project had to be abandoned for about three years, when it was only 22km to completion. Within that period, tax payers' funds were needlessly tied down. The partly completed portions depreciated from disuse. Above all, the relief, convenience and economic benefits of the project were denied the public. It is therefore gladdening that the FG is reviving the project. Let it not be abandoned yet again.
We consider it of strategic importance that the tracks will not stop at Warri but be extended to the Delta Steel Company jetty. This will enable the steel plant not only to receive raw materials from the Itakpe iron ore mines but also to transport steel billets to the Ajaokuta Steel Company for the manufacture of finished products for the construction industry.
A modern railway track covering the Ajaokuta-Warri route will also be a major transportation boost to other sectors and industries, especially those engaged in bulk haulage and mass transit.
It is a national embarrassment that Nigeria has, for at two decades, operated an economy without an efficient rail system. It confirms that something is fundamentally wrong with the quality of governance that the country's ruling class has provided over the decades. For a nation of Nigeria's size and geography, a state-of-the-art double-gauge rail system is a sine qua non for rapid development. The technology is available - developed over about 200 years. Potential investors, local and foreign, would be easily attracted to limitless market waiting to be tapped, given the right legal and regulatory environment. Tremendous economic savings would result from using the rail tracks for conveying bulk goods - including petroleum products, until distribution pipelines can be laid across the country. A network of express train facilities linking major cities in the country would give a massive boost to struggling industries like the print media, for example, by revolutionising access to readers with the latest news - delivered overnight, with minimal risks, and at the fraction of present distribution costs. This would radically boost circulation figures and increase the publications' value to advertisers.
The advantages of running a modern, efficient railway network are so obvious that it is baffling that Nigeria's ruling elite has refused to act to redeem the disgraceful state of the rails. Elsewhere in the world, roads, rails and airports are interlinked for seamless efficiency. It is not so in Nigeria. Owing to the strangeness of the government's persistent failure to upgrade, expand and modernise its railways, a pervasive suspicion exists among the public that a cartel of major road transporters (e.g. owners of luxury bus fleets and heavy-duty trucks) has been secretly lobbying successive governments to abort any plan to give Nigerians a proper rail system. We are compelled to grant some credibility to the suspicion, and hope the Ajaokuta-Warri rail line will prove the persisting rumour false.
Beyond the puzzling abandonment of the railways, the general condition of the current transport infrastructure in the country is an indictment of the government at all tiers - federal, state and local. It is already two years since the then Minister for Transportation, (now the Mines and Steel Minister), Mrs. Deziani Allison-Madueke, wept publicly during her on-the-spot assessment of failed portions of the Sagamu-Benin Expressway. It shocked the good lady to see the agony road-users had to endure on that so-called expressway. The road is worse today.
Other roads in the country are in a similar or even worse condition. The Lokoja-Abuja Road, for instance, was recently tagged as a death-trap by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), recording one of the highest accident fatalities in the Nigeria. The Kaduna- Kano Road is decrepit. The Akwa Ibom State Government has had to undertake the rehabilitation of the state's stretch of the long abandoned Uyo-Calabar federal highway, which, incidentally, is still a single-carriage road. The same tale of irresponsible neglect is repeated nationwide, on state and local roads as well on federal highways.
The result is an uncompetitive, grounded economy. To worsen citizens' plight, security operatives posted to the roads are principally extortionists armed at state expense. What is more, violent robbers operate on the highways virtually unchallenged by the security agencies.
Transforming the rail sector requires, for a start, a removal of the present constitutional hurdle of the Federal Government's monopoly over rail services. What good can come out the comatose Nigeria Railway Corporation - a monopoly? Absurdity of absurdities!
What of the abandoned Inland Waterways Department (IWD) that had flourished under the colonial masters for the cheap transportation of bulk goods? When will this government commit truly to a world-class economy, by action and not words only?
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