After
a prolonged neglect of the nation’s railway, recent efforts by the government
to revive and modernise the transport mode have not yielded the desired
results, RASHEED BISIRIYU writes
Fifty-five
years after independence, Nigeria still struggles to operate part of the
3,505km of railway inherited from the British colonial masters amid failed
numerous contracts.
There
are high expectations that a weekly train from Lagos to Kano will be doubled
after the rehabilitation of its dilapidated track, which costs the Federal
Government over N24bn to fix. But this turns out to be a dashed hope as only
the single train resumes operation after three years of inactivity. The train
still suffers intermittent breakdown.
The
Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, after undertaking a visit round
some agencies under the ministry, including the Nigerian Railway Corporation,
shocks his audience when he declares that he does not know a functional train
really exists in Nigeria.
Amaechi
obviously speaks the minds of many people who have never had a ride on the
train within the country.
But
trains still run in Nigeria, although they are irregular and unattractive.
Investigations
show that available few trains are mainly used for either short-trip excursions
or mass transit by peasant farmers, rural traders and junior workers.
Only
recently, the corporation deployed its latest refurbished rolling stock in the
weekly Lagos-Kano route. And this expectedly attracted a number of curious
passengers, some of who shared their experiences with our correspondent.
Alimah
Omodele, a self-employed lady, is on a visit to Ilorin. She is encouraged by
her mother-in-law, who resides in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, to travel by
the train.
She
says, “My mother-in-law told me it would be fun and promised to pick me up at
the railway station in Ilorin when we arrive. But I’ve not seen any fun except
the AC.”
Omodele
is not sure of taking the train back to Lagos, saying she is not really
impressed.
Yomi
Goncalves, a student of the Federal Technology Minna, pays N3,000 to secure a
seat in the first-class section of the Lagos-Kano train. He is happy, having
saved about N1,000 by not using the road travel option. But he has to endure
spending more hours on the train. It is his first experience on the train and
hopes to take it again if it will be regular and timely.
But
an employee of the Nigerian Navy, Yakubu Abdullahi, who is heading for Zaria in
Kaduna State for a medical checkup, cannot hide his disappointment in the
first-class sleeper coach. “What I saw on the NRC website fascinated me. It
gave an indication that the train is next to the airplane experience. But I’m
seeing a different thing now. The AC, the toilet, the bedding and the whole
place looks old-fashioned and unattractive. It is not worth my N6,050.”
Mr.
Kayode Agboola is from Offa in Kwara State. His mother is travelling to Kano
after paying him a visit in Lagos and she opts for the train.
“When
I heard about the train going up North, I decided my mum should take it and she
agrees because it is cheaper and safer,” he says.
Mr.
Mike Itseghosimhe, a health consultant, says it is his sixth trip on the
Lagos-Kano train in the last one year. To him, it has been a mixed feeling of
excitement and frustration.
The
excitement, for instance, comes from the opportunity it offers to relax
maximally and the fascination of touring several cities and villages that are
along the Lagos-Kano railway in one journey without having to leave one’s seat
on the train.
He,
however, recalls one nasty experience when a coach was detached from a train in
motion in a remote village near Offa. It caused a delay of about 24 hours, he
says.
“Sometime,
the gas supply to the AC on the train will be cut off; the train is delayed at
the departure and this affects its arrival. And no announcement or information
is given. They just leave everyone in the dark,” says itseghosimhe.
Nigerian
Railway CorporationThe development of railway began in Nigeria with a 32km line
of 1067mm gauge from Iddo (Lagos) to Ota (Ogun). This was in 1901 extended to
Ibadan, a distance of 193km, according to ‘Facts and Figures’, a handbook
produced by the NRC in 2006.
“Subsequently,
railway construction experienced continual extension from Ibadan to Jebba
(295km) 1901-1910; Kano–Baro (562km), 1907-1911; Jebba–Minna (252km),
1909-1915; Port-Harcourt-Enugu (243km), 1914-1916; and Kafanchan-Jos (17 km),
1922–1927,” it states.
For
31 years, from 1927 to 1958, there was no railway development. It was the
construction of Kafanchan-Bauchi rail line (238km) from 1958 to 1961 and the
Bauchi-Maiduguri line (302km) in 1961–1964 that brought the total rail route of
the Nigerian railway network to 3,505km.
Many
Nigerians were excited by the establishment of the NRC in 1955 with an Act of
Parliament. And indeed the corporation is credited to have performed reasonably
well between 1955 and 1979.
Analysts
also credit the Nigerian railway as playing a pivotal role in increasing the
tempo of commercial activities in the many towns along the rail routes. It has
also boosted inter-ethnic marriages, acquisition of new dressing habits, food
and languages and caused the emergence of mega towns referred to as railway
towns such as Lagos, Umuahia, Zaria, Kano, Kafanchan, Jos, Enugu, Aba and Port
Harcourt.
But
a steady process of decline was said to have crept into its operation in the
late 1970s. This, according to experts, became worse with the systemic decay of
the corporation’s entire infrastructure and manpower.
For
instance, statistics on passenger and freight traffics from the corporation
show that in 1964, the NRC carried 11,288,000 passengers and 2,960,000 tonnes
of freight. Ten years later, the figures dropped to 4,342,000 and 1,098,000,
respectively.
Before
the rot set in, a former President of the Nigeria Union of Railway Workers, Mr.
Ado Maigoro, recalls, “In those good old days of the railway, we had trains
moving on a daily basis from Lagos to Kano; Kano to Lagos: Port Harcourt to
Kano; Kano to Port Harcourt and Jos to Port Harcourt; while Lagos-Maiduguri
train ran four times weekly, apart from the mass transit in Lagos and other
towns.”
Although
successive governments have shown concerns about the parlous state of the
nation’s railway system by allocating funds to turn around this all-important
transport mode, analysts lament that this has not really translated to the
desirable improved train services.
They
attribute this to lack of maintenance, policy inconsistency, corruption,
management inefficiency and inadequate marketing.
In
the late 1970s, the military regime headed by Olusegun Obasanjo had to invite
the Rail India Technical and Economic Services to manage the NRC. The Indian
experts met only 20 functional locomotive engines in the system. By the time
they were leaving in the early 1980s, the number had increased to 173.
Maigoro
says, “The Indians did not perform any magic. They succeeded only because they
received adequate funds from the government to put things right. What the
railway needs even now is adequate funding to replace and repair obsolete
rolling stock.”
The
administration of the late Gen. Sani Abacha must have heeded Maigoro’s advice
when it awarded a $528m railway contract in 1995 to the China Civil Engineering
Construction Corporation for the rehabilitation of rail infrastructure, supply
of 50 locomotives and other rolling stocks, as well as the training of critical
NRC personnel.
Although
this project is not listed among the N1.68tn railway contracts currently under
probe by the House of Representatives, the continued breakdown of the supplied
locos and the furore generated by the outcome of the project almost led to a
diplomatic row between Nigeria and China.
The
CCECC’s alleged shoddy execution of that contract became a bad publicity for
the company. For instance, a public affairs analyst, Dr. Mutali Musa, in a
report, urged Amaechi to avoid the CCECC if he must move the railway forward.
But
other analysts have argued that the same company is currently handling the
construction of a light rail along the CMS-Mile 2-Okokomaiko route for the
Lagos State Government.
The
Director of Public Transport, Lagos Area Metropolitan Transport Authority, Mr.
Gbenga Dairo, says the CCECC has successfully executed a number of road
projects in many parts of the country and is involved in other more complex
railway projects in and outside Nigeria. So far, the firm has not been found
wanting in the Lagos light rail project.
So,
what went wrong between the Chinese company and the Abacha regime concerning
the N52bn NRC revival project remains shrouded in mystery.
The
civilian administration of Obasanjo was applauded when it conceived the idea of
a 25-year strategic vision for the railway in 2002. This was meant to be a
systematic development of the railway system. It was specifically designed to
provide a global framework and benchmark for rail expansion and modernisation
for over 8,000 kilometres linking all state capitals and major centres and
industrial areas in the country. And the government reportedly paid a princely
sum to a panel that delivered the package.
A
report by an author and journalist, Tokunbo Oloruntola, describes it as an
ambitious plan for the nation’s railway expansion projects whose funds are
expected to be sourced from the private sector and multi-lateral bodies.
“Among
others, it will involve the conversion of the nation’s narrow gauge rail tracks
to a standard gauge and the construction of new 4,984 kilometres of rail lines
to link the West and East of the country,” the report states.
It
was, however, at the twilight of that administration (November 28, 2006) that
Obasanjo inaugurated the construction of a new Lagos-Kano standard gauge line,
spanning 1,315km at the Kajola Railway Station, Ogun State. The contract was
awarded to the CCECC.
The
project was later abandoned by the Umar Yara’adua administration after the
Chinese firm had pocketed the sum of $250m, being the initial payment made by
the government for the job.
Giving
reasons for the suspension of the project, an erstwhile Minister of Transport,
Ibrahim Bio, says, “The Chinese government was able to stimulate the interest
of the Federal Government by proposing to give a soft loan of $2.5bn and that
attracted the government. When we went in for it, they retracted and said they
only had $500m and that we should go and source for the balance from Chinese
banks at their prevailing interest rates.”
Another
project, a new Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail line, was awarded to a Korean firm
at a cost of $10bn then. But it was never executed.
The
appointment of Alhaji Waziri Muhammed as the NRC chairman in 2001, an
influential and wealthy member of trustees of the then ruling party, the
Peoples Democratic Party, by the Obasanjo administration brought some hope to
the industry.
Waziri
was obviously passionate about the railway and wanted its transformation to be
accelerated. He took the risk of taking a nationwide tour on the train, just to
get firsthand information on the state of railway facilities and get the
support of state governments, irrespective of their party affiliations. He was
said to have given the railway a new hope, bringing the transport mode to
national limelight.
His
death in the Bellview plane crash on October 22, 2005 literally halted the
development programmes lined up for the Nigerian railway, according to Maigoro.
Romanian
railway experts came after the Indians and were reportedly paid $17m to supply
wagons and workshop equipment. The supplied facilities are still reportedly
gathering dust at the NRC workshop in Lagos, uninstalled and may never be
installed due to what an official calls ‘manual blunders’.
The
Goodluck Jonathan administration also gave a considerable attention to the
railway, making it one of the cardinal points of its Transformation Agenda. It
received funds in essence of N1tn, which is currently under investigation at
the House of Representatives.
For
instance, a total of 25 new locomotives purchased by the Federal Government
from the General Electric Transportation South America at a cost of N114bn were
delivered to the NRC between February and October 2010 and deployed to boost
train services across the country’s railway routes.
But
a recent survey of all the fit locos at the corporation, according to the
Secretary General of the NUR, Mr. Segun Esan, shows that less than 30 engines
are still standing.
Apart
from the locomotives, 366 coaches and wagons were refurbished for the NRC’s
use.
It
also procured two sets of diesel multiple units (trains) with a capacity for
640 passengers and six modern air-conditioned coaches with a seating capacity
of 68 passengers each.
As
follow up to the supply of locomotives, the GE also got the offer to assemble
200 locomotives for the NRC over a 10-year period at a plant to be established
in the country. It is, however, not clear if the project has taken off.
The
Managing Director of the NRC, Mr. Adeseyi Sijuade, who admits the industry
still suffers from the criminal neglect of over two decades by the government,
says the corporation has had to look inwards to bring back some grounded
rolling stocks by way of cannibalisation.
He
says, “The railway sector is one sector that has benefited from the programme
(SURE-P of the Jonathan administration). Without the SURE-P intervention, there
was actually no way the Lagos to Kano line would have been completed in 2012.”
In
2013, the Jonathan administration specifically promised to invest N1.6tn in the
railway in two years. About 15 different railway projects were penciled down
for completion by 2015.
And
13 of the projects were listed for attention in the capital projects of key
federal ministries for that year.
Although
the old Lagos-Kano rail line was inaugurated in December 21, 2012 after its
rehabilitation, it received a vote of N1.4bn in the 2013 budget for maintenance
purposes. The breakdown shows the Lagos-Jebba end and Jebba-Kano end got N700m
each.
The
rehabilitation of the narrow gauge Port Harcourt-Maiduguri line (an ongoing
project then) was allocated N67bn; it approved N225bn for the construction of a
rail line from Aba to Ajaokuta, linking Enugu, Asaba and Agbor. The government
also pledged an initial sum of N48bn for the construction of the 360km rail
line from Ajaokuta to Abuja through Jakura and Baro.
Similarly,
the government voted N5bn for the commencement of the East-West rail line
construction, expected to Lagos to Calabar.
Another
long stretch of rail line, spanning 650km, received N97bn. It is a standard
gauge line to cover Lagos, Ife, Ilesha, Owo, Benin, Onitsha and Enugu.
It
indicated about N50.9bn would be spent to construct a 604km rail line linking
Zaria-Kaura Namoda-Sokoto and Ilela.
The
Abuja mass transit trains, Lot 1 & 2 projects, got N85.7bn; while the
construction of the Abuja light rail received N66.3bn.
Six
stations being constructed between Itakpe and Warri were allocated N475.7bn.
But
the Centre for Social Justice, in its analysis of the development projects,
faults the allocation of funds. For instance, it notes a difference of over 50
per cent between what was proposed in the Transformation Agenda for the railway
in 2013 and the amount prepared for this in that year’s budget.
It
also gives some examples of the performance pattern of government in railway
project execution.
It
states, “The rehabilitation of the rail track from Lagos to Jebba commenced in
October 2009 and was expected to end in October 2010 at a cost of N12.29bn.
There was a time overrun but despite the new completion time of July 2011, as
of September 2011, only 90 per cent of the rehabilitation had been completed.”
It
recalls that N1.09bn was allocated to the project in the 2011 budget; N626.69m
was released but only N195.47m was utilised at the end of the third quarter of
2011.
“That
it was listed in the 2013 budget suggests that it will not be completed in
2012. The impact of inadequate releases and poor utilisation of released funds
on this project, as in others, informs poor implementation, leading to time and
likely cost overruns, which unduly inflates the cost of projects.”
Similarly,
CSJ recalls that the Jebba-Kano track rehabilitation commenced in December 2009
and was expected to end in February 2012.
It
says, “N7.6bn has been committed to the project since inception and had N2bn
allocation in 2011 budget with N1.6bn released as at end of the third quarter
of 2011, achieving only 67 per cent level of completion.
“A
time overrun is noticed in this project, which was supposed to have ended in
February 2012 but still receiving budgetary allocation in 2013.”
One
of projects in that year’s budget was the construction of new Lagos-Ibadan rail
line on standard gauge. It received a vote of N8.6bn. The plan is to take the
new line to Kano. The contract for the new Lagos-Ibadan line was later awarded
to the CCECC at the cost of $1.5bn. Construction work has, however, yet to
commence.
The
government also provided N3.56bn in the year’s budget for the completion of the
Abuja-Kaduna rail line. A total sum of N243bn was voted for the project under
the Transformation Agenda.
In
2014, the Federal Government and the China Railway Construction Corporation
Limited signed an $11.9bn contract to build a coastal 22-stop railway that will
stretch for 1,402km linking Lagos to Calabar with the maximum speed of
120km/hour. It is said to be the China’s single largest overseas contract.
But
the announcement does not appear to elicit the desired applause and excitement
from the citizens, according to a public affairs analyst, Akinwumi Adedoyin,
while contributing to an online report on the project published by ‘Economic
Confidential’.
He
says, “Nigerians have become immune to celebrating further announcements of
activities aimed at the resuscitation of the rail transport due to
disappointments in the past.
“Railway
transportation in other parts of the world contributes immensely towards the
attainment of economic and social goals but for a long time, that has not been
the case for Nigeria as the sector is suffering from monumental neglect and
corruption.”
Renowned
economists, including Dr. Ayo Teriba and Prof. Pat Utomi, express worry about
the deplorable state of the Nigerian railway despite the huge sums reportedly
sunk into a number of projects meant to improve the system.
They
wonder why elected leaders and government appointees have chosen to play
politics with an all-important infrastructural facility like the railway that
should have been the springboard for the transformation of the economy.
Teriba
says no nation with the population of Nigeria can ever hope to attain economic
development without an efficient railway system.
He
expects the government “to do to its rail transport sector what it has
beneficially done to its telecommunications sector, and has recently done to
its power sector; namely, end government monopoly, carve out the country into
zones and allow private firms to bid for the rights to build and/or operate
rail lines under the oversight of a new regulatory body. Not just rail, but
pipelines, gas, and refineries.
“If
these are successfully done, manufacturing should be expected to become
spontaneously competitive and manufacturing exports should grow. Not just
manufacturing will benefit. All other sectors will benefit from the
competitiveness and scale that functioning cargo rail transport system will
afford.”
The
President, African Railway Workers’ Union, Mr. Raphael Okoro, blames the
Federal Ministry of Transport for preparing contract terms and executing the
execution without the imput of relevant experts from the NRC.
“All
railway contracts are initiated and executed by the Ministry of Transport. For
instance, you go to purchase railway locomotives and leave out NRC engineers.
Lack of proper monitoring has been largely responsible for the failure of many
railway projects,” he says.
The
Secretary, NUR, Segun Esan, also says, “As a union, we’re not in the know how
the railway rehabilitation package is put in place. But whenever we notice that
something is wrong in the execution of any project, we raise a query through
the NRC management.
“There
is a need for the government to always carry the workers along in the planning
and execution of vital railway projects.”
Like
Okoro, Esan urges the government to constitute a high-powered team made up of
respected railway experts, trusted opinion leaders, human right lawyers and
workers’ leaders that will be saddled with the task of assessing railway
project proposals and monitor the execution of the job.
The
multi-billionaire light rail project of the Lagos State Government cannot be
operated unless the Railway Act, 1955 is repealed or amended. This Act gives
the NRC the exclusive right to run railway services in Nigeria. A bill seeking
an amendment to the Act has reportedly undergone the second reading at the
Senate, many years after it was sent there by the Executive.
Okoro
advises the state governors across the six regions in Nigeria to pool resources
together for the establishment of regional railway using the vehicle of Pubic
Private Partnership for effective delivery and management. For instance, he
advises that the new Lagos-Ibadan rail line can be funded by the South-West
governments since the line will pass through states in this region.
Source: The Punch
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