Nigeria’s regime of sacred cows

NO nation survives by promoting sacred cows, but Nigeria’s cows are sacred—and very literally so. Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has been quoted as saying that locomotives on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line cannot run faster than 90 kilometres per hour  because the ministry wants to prevent the death of cows. Speaking on the problems facing the rail system in the country at a forum in Abuja, on Tuesday, the minister reportedly said that “The reason we want to go back to narrow gauge is that between Lagos and Kano, we have 30 million tonnes of cargo. Even if you do three rail lines, it cannot be enough. It took us 14 days to move coaches from Lagos to Abuja. The kind of construction we are doing is 120 kilometres per hour, it is a speed train. We are doing 90km/h with Abuja to Kaduna. The reason we are doing 90km/h is because there are cows everywhere, and we don’t want to kill cows. The other day, they said ‘You people should replace the cows you killed.’ From that day, I have said let us maintain the 90km/h; at 120km/h, you get to Kaduna in one hour. You can work in Kaduna and live in Abuja.”

Cows being mere animals, you may be forgiven for thinking that they do not have a mind of their own and should depend on the human agency for guidance. That is in fact the practice elsewhere in the world where they are sequestered in ranches and their full potentialities in meat, milk, and leather, among others, harnessed for the national good. But Nigeria’s cows are powerful, above the law and beyond reproach, which is why rail travel, even if it is on the elaborately constructed and state-of-the-art Kaduna-Abuja rail, must be subordinated to their whims and caprices.  Surely,   a path impeded by cows is a poor road to take towards national development, but those in power do not seem to care. The big guns behind the cattle business are pulling the levers in the corridors of power and are not about letting anyone upset their apple cart, certainly not for the fabled national development. Pretending to be patriots sensitive to culture, government functionaries are pulling the country back by many centuries. The general public is completely expendable. Welcome to the federal republic of sacred cows.

The Federal Government apparently does  not care about China, which recently unveiled its type D bullet trains, a brand so fast that the journey that takes a normal-speed train more than 15 hours is covered in just four hours and  48 minutes. It is enough to go cap in hand begging for Nigeria’s development at China’s expense. Nevertheless, it is no secret that the Chinese Fuxing bullet train, running at 350 km/hr or (217mph), traverses Beijing and Shanghai, a distance of 1,318km (819 miles) in four hours and 24 minutes. Considered from a Nigerian perspective, the bullet train will travel from Lagos to Abuja, and back to Lagos, in only five hours. On China’s high-speed trains, passengers enjoy fully air-conditioned rooms; the seats are adjustable and there is  a 220V AC power socket at each seat to charge phones. And there also is a restroom for the physically challenged. How sad that Nigerians, who are not even asking for any such luxury, cannot enjoy fast train travel because cows are dictating public policy!

As we have said time and again, on average, cows reared in ranches weigh a tonne, unlike the nomadic species that weigh at best a grudging 250 kilogrammes. Ranched cattle are better fed and better cared for; they fare better on the market and yield returns that would be completely impossible, even unthinkable, in the nomadic tradition. But the Nigerian government insists on the traditional method long shelved by serious countries, and that in itself would not have been too much of a problem if citizens minding their own business were not asked to yield their land, their economy and, daringly, even their lives, to cows reared by the apostles of tradition who pilot the national ship at the expense of human civilisation. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is groaning under the weight of sacred cows, and so are the universities. Airplanes have been known to delay landing because of the presence of cattle on the runway, yet the country’s politicians would never nominate themselves for the prize for the worst leadership in the world.

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If trains cannot move at a modest 120km/h because of some sacred cows, just why did the country moot the idea of light rail in the first place? Why build modern transport infrastructure when you are stuck permanently in the past? If these are valid questions, the country definitely requires more than a regime of cows in high places. But the real problem is that hope looks like a luxury good that many a distraught citizen cannot afford. The world is on a continuous march towards development and is not waiting for Nigeria to abandon its regime of sacred cows before taking the next step. Is there any reason it should?