While watching Vice-President Namadi Sambo inaugurating the
air-conditioned coaches at the Lagos terminus of the Nigerian Railway
Corporation on TV some weeks ago, my son said: "Daddy, let us travel
by rail to our hometown this coming holiday."
I told him that it is not possible because there are no rail lines
between Lagos and Onitsha, let alone between Onitsha and Nnewi. I saw
the disappointment on his face.
But contrary to what I told my son, it is actually possible to travel
by rail from Lagos to the South-East. However, first, we will have to
wait till August, the time the Nigerian Railway Corporation promised
that the Port Harcourt-Gombe-Maiduguri line would come alive after
being dead for 10 years. That's not all. To get to the South-East, we
in Lagos will have to first travel to Kano on the western line, and
then connect the eastern line to Enugu, before disembarking to
complete the journey to Nnewi on road.
That was the way the British colonialists made it from inception 115
years ago. They created the two railway lines that ran from Northern
Nigeria to Lagos in the West and from Northern Nigeria to Port
Harcourt in the East to be their channels through which they took
materials from Nigeria to the sea for onward dispatch to the United
Kingdom. Fifty three years after the British departed, we are still
stuck with those two western and eastern lines.
Regrettably, the rail transport was even left to decay and virtually
die. If you spoke of riding a train in Nigeria some 20 years ago,
people would look at you like somebody from the cave. Our trains were
seen as being fit only for cattle.
However, commendation should go to President Goodluck Jonathan for
reviving rail transport in Nigeria. When he started it, many sneered
that the coaches were as old as Methuselah and as slow as a snail, and
unfit for human transport.
Refreshingly, air-conditioned coaches have been introduced. The
eastern rail line is scheduled to come alive in August, while the
Abuja-Kaduna light rail is said to be 80 per cent complete.
According to the NRC, contrary to the one million people that used the
rail annually, the rail transports five million people annually now.
(Certainly, that figure does not include those who ride free sitting
precariously on top the train or hanging behind it!) That figure is
low when compared to other nations. But it is still an improvement
from what was obtainable before now.
There is no doubt that it is good that the rail system is back. The
NRC used to be the largest single employer of labour in Nigeria, but
unfortunately, it was allowed to die by people who would travel to
other countries, see how trains run efficiently and ease transport,
and yet come home to embezzle the money meant for the railway.
Some would even ride the trains abroad but come back home to join in
killing our rail system.
Just like rail system was killed, the national airline was also
killed. (What government agency was not killed or made a shadow of
itself?) The masses have had to depend on personal cars, commercial
buses owned by individuals, as well as airlines owned by private
individuals. But there is no way a highly populated nation like
Nigeria can depend only on inadequate but expensive air and road
transport.
The pressure on our roads as well as our poor maintenance culture has
dealt a huge blow on the state of our roads.
Now that the moribund rail lines have been revived, when can my son
ride a train from Lagos to Igboland and vice versa? When can an Edo or
Delta person travel to Lagos on rail?
In December 2012, while inaugurating the Lagos-Kano train service and
the resumption of fuel haulage from Lagos to Offa, the Minister of
Transport, Idris Umar, announced that the Federal Government would
construct 10 new rail lines to cover areas not currently covered.
According to him, all the new lines would be constructed on standard
gauge track for the movement of fast trains.
These 10 new lines are: 1. Lagos-Sagamu-Ijebu Ode-Ore-Benin; 2.
Benin-Agbor-Onitsha-Nnewi-Owerri-Aba, with a spur from Onitsha to
Enugu and Abakaliki; 3. Lagos-Oshogbo-Baro-Abuja; 4.
Ajaokuta-Obajana-Jakura-Baro, with an additional line from Ajaokuta to
Otukpo; 5. Zaria-Kaura Namoda-Sokoto-Illela-Birni Koni; 6.
Benin-Sapele-Warri-Yenogoa-Port Harcourt-Aba-Uyo-Akampa-Ikom-Obudu
Cattle Ranch; 7.Ajaokuta-Eganyi-Lokoja-Abaji-Abuja; 8. Port
Harcourt-Umuahia-Enugu-Makurdi-Lafia-Kaduna-Bauchi-Gombe-Biu-Maiduguri;
9. Ikom-Ogoja-Katsina Ala-Wukari-Jalingo-Yola-Maiduguri, and 10.
Kani-Nguru-Gashua-Damaturu-Maiduguri-Gamborun-Ngala.
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