118 years after, Nigeria’s rail services seem stuck in its track…
Well, almost
BY UCHE USIM
WHEN the British colonial masters built the first railway in Nigeria in 1898 linking Lagos and Abeokuta, it was only Britain, the United States of America and a few other countries that had such facility then.
Naturally, anyone would expect that 118 years down the line, Nigeria should have built an excellent national rail network with latest models of fast moving trains seen in developed economies. But that is actually not the case.
Paradoxically, while many countries that started train services long after Nigeria have perfected that mode of transportation by using it for efficient human transportation and bulk cargo haulage, the nation’s rail system remains in near-comatose state.
In countries like Germany, France, United Kingdom, for instance, underground and surface rail tracks are linked to the seaports, airports and land borders. This ensures efficient movement of people and facilitates quick distribution of needed goods like machinery, bulk cargo like cement, wheat, fertilizers, precious stones, perishable and non-perishable food items, medicals among others.
In South Africa, the Metrorail operates commuter rail services in the major urban areas. The Metrorail system consists of 471 stations, 2,228 km of tracks, and carries an average of 1.7 million passengers per daily.
In the UK, trains are preferred to buses and in some instances, flights, due to their efficiency.
In all these countries, modern light rail, monorail and latest electric trains are rapidly replacing the old locomotives.
According to global records, Europeans and Asians currently operate the fastest high speed trains in the world as seen in Shanghai Maglev, Harmony CRH 380A, the HEMU-400X, Zefiro 380 and Talgo Avril. Some go as fast as 360km/ hr, making them excellent alternatives to air transportation.
But today unfortunately, Nigeria still relies heavily on the slower locomotive trains (some as low as 35km/hr) that pollute the atmosphere. Worse still, the country is yet to develop hubs and spokes system for the trains to ensure total coverage of Nigeria.
The railways remain a major revenue earner for operators and governments alike. It is also a major employer of labour, which informs why developed nations seek to sustain and improve the sub-sector.
Transport analysts describe Nigeria’s railway services as a monumental disgrace, attributing its perennial wobbly state to blind politics, unchecked graft, ethnic differences and other challenges.
They insist the railway sector should be well developed as Nigerian roads are death traps, while air travel remains elusive to the masses due to their weak purchasing power.
A retired Director of the Transport Ministry who does not want his name in print told Daily Sun that some haulage cabals who, in their selfish bid to take over the lucrative inter-state transport/haulage business, masterminded the systematic killing of the NRC so that their businesses could thrive.
“They didn’t want to compete with the railway especially for the haulage of heavy goods. Trains will definitely be cheaper and more efficient. So, they can’t compete. They bribed their way to ensure that successive Transport Ministers and Managing Directors of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) were their anointed candidates. So the transport cabals worked hand in hand with these political appointees to make the railway sub-sector moribund. This is so because every year, funds earmarked rail track modernisation through the budgets squandered. Rail tracks were never maintained while some of the tracks have been washed off by erosion and all that. The trains were in comatose state. Many of the coaches have been abandoned for decades to rot away. Yet if you go to the NRC head office in Ebutte Meta,you see activities but no productivity. They languish there doing nothing but feeding fat from the perennial system rot”, he told Daily Sun.
According to the critique by Mazi Jetson Nwankwo, a former Acting Managing Director of the NRC, the nation’s rail system has for many decades, been starved of the political will to move it to the next level.
“While the NRC had employed about 45,000 people between 1954 and 1975, in 2008 it employed only 6,516 persons”, he revealed.
He pointed out that, as at 2008, no new wagons had been bought since 1993, adding that some wagons date back to 1948. He noted that track conditions limit trains to a speed of 35 km/hr.
Interestingly, in 2013, the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan suddenly woke up from the decades of slumber and embarked on what could be termed a revolutionary revival of the NRC.
Some rail tracks were repaired and some daily shuttle services like Lagos-Lokoja, Lagos-Kaduna were restored.
By 2014, some appreciable progress had been recorded and there was evidence of a slow but steady revitalisation of the railway sub-sector.
On June 9, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan, commissioned two sets of Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs), and 68-seater air-conditioned passenger coaches acquired by the Nigeria Railway Corporation to boost its passenger service.Each set of the DMU was made up of three trailer cars, and one motor car at each end. Each of the trailer cars also had 72 seating capacity and provision for 108 standing passengers, making, a total of 540 passengers for the three cars.
They were deployed for densely populated cities like Lagos and Kano.
Although train container transportation from Lagos-Kano and Lagos-Kaduna has commenced, traffic reports shows the volume moved by rail is still low.
On March 2 this year, a vessel carrying NRC’s five train coaches docked at the ENL Terminal, Apapa Port, Lagos.
They comprised three standard coaches with capacity for 80 passengers, one executive coach with capacity for 56, and one Parcel/ Guard Van coach.
Mr Kabir Zayyana, NRC’s Acting Director of Mechanical, Electrical, Signal and Communication, said the contract for the coaches was awarded by the Federal Government in 2015, even as he said they would be deployed on the standard guage operation to serve Abuja and Kaduna.
But experts have however noted that the revamping of the railway by the last administration was more of a political campaign strategy than a long term repositioning effort.
They alleged that the quality of the rail tracks and coaches deployed were not top of the range as the a lion share of the NRC funds were diverted to finance campaigns.
With the waned political will to sincerely revamp the rail sector, massive graft was allegedly uncovered.
But President Mohammadu Buhari, on assumption of office vowed to clean the rot in the NRC as his administration intended to use train services to open up businesses at various agrarian towns and villages that have been denied access to modern transportation.
Consequently, transformation of the NRC eventually consumed the then Managing Director, Engr Adeseyi Sijuwade, who was sacked by Buhari.
But his sack appeared not to have addressed the underlying political manoeuvrings that have kept that nation’s rail system from becoming world class.
Only recently, the Presidency and the National Assembly were at loggerheads over the sudden “disappearance” of the N60 billion Lagos-Calabar rail project from the 2016 budget.
But while the N120 billion Lagos-Kano rail projects remains intact, tongues are wagging over the politics being played with the Lagos-Calabar axis project.
According to the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, the Presidency never included the project in the 2016 budget.
“With reference to the specific issue of the Calabar – Lagos rail project, we will like to state that the two railway projects, Lagos – Kano and the Calabar – Lagos, are very important projects of the present administration; and it was always the intention of the Executive to have both projects reflected in the budget submitted to the National Assembly.