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Functional commercial railway system is a must for economy

By Tola Ogunnubi
08 April 2016   |   3:47 am
Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s in Lagos, commuting on trains from our house in Idi-Oro area of Lagos to Yaba/Ebute-Metta on a daily basis was such a wonderful experience.

RAIL

Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s in Lagos, commuting on trains from our house in Idi-Oro area of Lagos to Yaba/Ebute-Metta on a daily basis was such a wonderful experience. My older siblings and I were always looking forward to using this means of transportation, because it was the most affordable and safest means of transportation. As a child growing up near the railway line of Lagos that stretches behind my family house, the sound of the different train coaches approaching was always fascinating. I remember going to the rails of the trains and putting bottle tops on the rails for them to get flattened and be able to use them in childhood contests. It was such a memorable experience growing up.

Train services remain the cheapest and most efficient of all modes of transportation worldwide. It is the most effective way of conveying large number of people as well as goods on land. At present in Nigeria, roads carry more than 90 per cent of domestic freight and passengers. This places so much pressure on the available road infrastructure that results in the incessant collapse and unnecessary huge financial outlay for maintenance and repairs. There is the need to resuscitate our railway system and it needs to be done as quickly as possible to allow the railway mode of transportation exert the desired impact. It is not enough to have just the roads as our major arteries of commercial transportation.

Before now, the contribution of the railway system of transportation to national economic development in its glorious heydays was of immense value. This got declined tremendously as a result of competition from the roads. Nigeria was one of the first countries on the African continent to have a well-funded railway system, but the immense societal ills in our country affected the rail system. The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) assets including lands were stolen and grabbed. The immediate past administration evidently did well in ensuring that there was a concerted and pragmatic effort at reviving the Nigerian Railway system. The problem; however, was that some of their activities were shrouded in secrecy as far as some of the contracts awarded were concerned. The potentials of our rail transport system are immense, its core values of attainment of movement of passengers and goods in a manner that is safe, reliable and affordable cannot be over emphasized. Railway infrastructure is supposed to be a priority in our economy; Nigeria needs a decent rail transport network to move a major part of its estimated 80- 100 million tons of freight per annum. With over a trillion Naira on railway contracts and additional funding from the now-rested Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Program (SURE-P) between 2010 and 2014, there is little or nothing significant to show in terms of passengers and goods carriage on a commercial usage. It has not really translated into the desired improved train services.

This critical section of our national economic development has suffered so many things ranging from lack of maintenance, policy inconsistency, inadequate marketing and publicity of the activities of the rail system to management inefficiency and above all massive corruption. In other developed economies, a functioning railway system contributes immensely towards the attainment of economic and social goals, it is an all-important infrastructural facility that is very viable and a springboard for the transformation of the economy.

I will rather love to see the different state governors building airports jettison the idea and get involved, contribute and encourage a functional commercial railway system which is a more enduring infrastructural legacy than the egotistic airport projects.

Going by this year’s budget proposal, the ₦120 billion allocated for different railway projects across the country is grossly inadequate because ₦60 billion or 50 per cent of this proposal is for the Lagos- Kano project alone. The Joint Committee on Land Transportation of the National Assembly should increase it to something more reasonable. Private sector involvement is required in the process of developing the railways; the resuscitation must not be the burden of the government alone. Nigeria is in dire need of a modern and efficient rail transport system to develop our economy. In order to sustain the efforts made so far, the present administration needs to fund this sector to achieve a commercial status dream.

Different contracts have been awarded and monies paid, some mobilised up to 60 per cent of the contract sum but abandoned and nothing to show for it. Or how do you justify the recent outcry of the Senate committee on the FCT that a previous administration awarded $841billion rail project without an MOU to a Chinese firm although some stakeholders say the contract was a batter arrangement, no money was involved.

Nevertheless, since government is a continuum some awarded contracts in this sector ought to be reviewed and where necessary, some cancelled to give room for a more competitive contract bidding with the involvement of all stakeholders especially the coastal rail contract said to have been awarded without competitive bidding, improper documentation and over inflated costs.

• Ogunnubi lives at Wuse Zone 4, Abuja.tolaogunnubi@yahoo.com

2 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    We need a modern upgraded train yard, that can manufacture component part here in Nigerian, instead of shutting of to Europe or Asia just to repare an ordinary nutscrew…
    Another solution to this is transparency, railway activities is usually shrouded in secrecy…

  • Author’s gravatar

    NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE!!!
    TOO MUCH TALK AND FALLACY, BUT LITTLE OR NO ACTION MAKES NIGERIA THE WORST NATION IN MODERN TIME, UNDER THE SUN.
    Most Nigerians have been mentally cheated by Mother Nature that´s why nothing, absolutely, nothing will ever, ever work in Nigeria because the people of Nigeria are mentally dead. On October 1st, Nigeria will celebrate 56 years of independence, 56 long unproductive and non-progressive years. There was nothing to celebrate or commemorate. Five plus Six good decades wasted, because no one in Nigeria, I mean simply no one is capable of delivering anything. Nigeria is a country of stupid leaders. Those of yesterday and today are the same. Nigeria changes the S. H. I. T. but the flies and mosquitoes continue the same. About 40, 35 years ago, or so, Nigeria was richer and more developed than South Korea. Look at where they are today. We are tired of being threatened by boko haram, lack of good roads, lack of good healthcare, good education, good running pipe borne water lack of comprehensive infrastructural development. Can’t Nigerians learn with or from them (the Koreans)? The change that we voted for, is not happening, instead our president has become run-away president. Every week he is somewhere
    around the globe. We cannot stand darkness anymore. Enough of corruption and jokes. Change is inevitable.