Nigeria: Return of Railways?

24 December 2012
opinion

Mni — Yours sincerely last Friday witnessed the historic flagged off of the much awaited intercity passenger train services and haulage of petroleum services from Lagos to Kano by the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar at the headquarters of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Ebute Metta, Lagos.

Indeed I was privileged to have a ride with thousands of passengers on Ilorin-Kano train that took off from Ebute. I happily de-boarded at Ikeja railway station in a record 15 minutes historic rail-ride that invoked nostalgia of my first trip by rail from Ilorin to Lagos in 1969 as a primary school pupil unaccompanied by my parents. The car that took me to Ebute Metta was still held up at Oyingbo notorious road traffic mess while I had disembarked at Ikeja from the modest but significant rail service. The fact that my car driver caught up with me one hour and half later underscores the economic fact that nothing moves goods and mass of peoples over a long distance, faster and cheaper than the railways! Minister Umar reiterated the commitment of the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to the transformation of the transport sector to which the Railways form an integral part in his address at the event. In his address, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Engineer Adeseyi Sijuwade, noted that the opening of the Lagos to Kano Rail route will bring a lot of socio economic development to the nation. Sijuwade who actually led by example and travelled with the service from Lagos to Kano listed the challenges facing the corporation to include insufficient locomotives and rolling stock, inadequate skilled and well trained manpower, as well as financial constraints as the organisation could not be self sufficient at this time.. Are we then witnessing a return of Railway? We were told that what we witnessed was part of the implementation of 25 Years Strategic Vision for the Nigerian Railways, commencing with the rehabilitation of the existing western narrow gauge line (Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan-Oshogbo-Ilorin-Jebba-Minna-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano) sum total stretch of the rail line rehabilitated (1126Km)! If the highlighted ongoing projects in the railway sector are executed, we may be having a railway revolution at hand or a railway revival since the nation once had what is being rehabilitated such as the Rehabilitation of the Eastern Railway Line from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, with spur lines from Kuru to Kafanchan and Kaduna and Kuru to Jos and Rehabilitation of Zaria-Gusau-Kaura Namoda Rail Line among others. With modernization projects that include Abuja (Idu) - Kaduna Standard Gauge Rail Line (187 km); and the 22Km Standard Gauge Rail Line of the Central Rail Line from Ajaokuta - Warri with station buildings (276 km), Nigeria is getting back to development as distinct from corruption agenda.

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