With hands thrown to the sky and legs akimbo with shoes dancing on claw-like silver coloured granites, two young men; one in late 20s and the other in his mid 30s, called for attention: “Eko, Abeokuta! Eko, Abeokuta,” they sang like birds chiming on a dewless harmattan morning. Their faces flush with seriousness, conducting their business spiced of humour and mockery, but the duo continued, intermittently stealing some smiles.
Soon, mockery left the mix and their voices grew. Notched by the rush of dust generated by vehicles moving across the tracks, from one side of the yet-to-be-tarred connecting roads to the other, their lemon green apron joined in the growth, too. But not without giving away some of its original greenness to the impeding brown of the morning dusts.
The time was 8:42 am, and the place was Ologuneru, Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria. This is the departure point of the newly inaugurated Lagos-Ibadan railway and the young men were calling for passengers to join the train’s free 9 am trip to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre. But unfortunately, their effort, just like an attempt to catch a hazy winter breeze, was fruitless.
Perhaps, the effort was not totally fruitless because two passengers embarked the train. Anyway, it could not have been worse than the previous day’s – Monday, December 2, 2019 – which had the same number.
The country’s minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi had directed the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to commence free trips on the railway from November 30, 2019, to March 31, 2020, amidst concerns over the project’s readiness.
Billion-dollar project
The 156.65-kilometre Ibadan-Lagos standard rail gauge is one project that had lingered. First awarded as part of a railway network project by the then Olusegun Obasanjo administration to China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) – Chinese state-owned enterprise – at the cost of $8.3 billion in 2006, but was not executed.
The Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2012 signed a memorandum of understanding with the same firm for the execution of the project. This time, the cost of the project was pegged at $1.53 billion, and financed by China Export-Import (EXIM) Bank, under concessional loan terms.
After Muhammadu Buhari government was inaugurated in May 2015, it made its intention of developing the country’s railway network known. On March 7, 2017, the then acting president, Yemi Osinbajo, inaugurated the construction of the project in Lagos. It was expected to be completed in December 2018. Fast-forward nearly three years after the inauguration, the project is yet to be totally ready.
In March 2018, when the federal government, represented by the minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, had a meeting with the CCECC, it expressed hopes that the project would completed in December 2018. Mr Mohammed had enthused: “On today’s meeting, what we have achieved is that the December date for the Lagos – Ibadan standard gauge is non – negotiable. I am happy to say that both contractors and consultants have promised their commitments to meet the deadline. The challenges raised are surmountable and these are what we reviewed in the meeting”. But it failed, like it did in 2006.
The project was one of the many campaign promises of the president Buhari during the 2019 presidential election campaign. Promises were made that in few months, it would be ready.
The adventure
The racing morning darkness was yet to give way for the illuminating force of the day’s bright skies when this reporter left his home on Tuesday, December 3. Armed with first hand information on where the terminus of the Ibadan-Lagos railway was located in the town, he raced on. On getting to the supposed section of the town the terminus should be – Moniya – he had to ask questions.
The time now is 6:50 am. The driver conveying him to Moniya had no idea of where rail station is located. Motorcyclists, on seeing the obvious confusion on his face, approached. The first, clad in a black shirt, now turned totally grey by the dangerous dust of Moniya-Iseyin road, and grey trousers which is now married to the dust, smiled.
“Oga, where are you going to”, he asked. The reporter with some sense of false respite explained. “Ah, oga there is no railway station here”, came the disappointing response.
Then, with whom I embarked on what turned out to be an adventure, Adebayo appeared. After my explanation, he declared himself my saviour, and we moved. About 15 minutes later, we had heroically manoeuvred our way through the life-threatening dust on the road, and arrived at a railway with no tracks fixed yet. Then it downed on me that my saviour cannot even save himself.
Adebayo had to ask every human being on sight but no one agreed to had seen a train in their life, talk of seeing it being embarked on it, at Moniya.
Miraculously, call to the mobile phone line of the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the NRC, western operations, Calistus Unyinmadu, went through.
“Come to Ologuneru, that’s where the train is taking off”. These words were not soothing, neither were they dissatisfying as they blared into my ears from the speaker of my mobile phone. At this point, I had to figure out how I felt, but Adebayo was busy gauging his new business opportunity.
“Ah! Oga that place is very far o!” with these words, I knew I was in for the real adventure. Few minutes later, we were on our way to Ologuneru, with my rider intermittently grumbling, “oga journalist this road is too bad o!”
In about an hour, we were at Ologuneru, with a two-coach train powered by a locomotive of the CCECC comfortably sitting on a dual track rail; two soldiers wielding assault rifles standing next to it; a well kitted, rifle-carrying police officer standing close to a gutter, some centimetres away from the track; two brisk, pot-bellied Chinese engineers keenly watching the electrical compartment of one coach; more than half a dozen obsequious Man O’ War members moving in and out of the train; and many happy looking NRC staff, and the two young men canvassing for passengers buzzling with energy, all playing out a movie-like scene to me.
Forced start
Soon, I and Angelique Ikwuka, the District Manager, Western Operations, of NRC got talking. “The track at Moniya is yet to get to Kilometre 125, and because we want to ensure we start operations today as directed by the honourable minister, we have to start and stop at Ologuneru”, she said after I narrated my experience to her. “The other reason too is because we believe that Ologuneru is at the middle of town where passengers, when they disembark, it would be easy for them to get transportation to their various destinations. But by December 21, we will be getting to Moniya,”
By 9 am, the train took off, enruote Lagos. 25 minutes later, we were at Omi-Adio train station. I anxiously looked through the windows to see the beautiful train station. But what met my eyes were strong concrete walls and many standing iron bars with some workers making frantic effort to mould them into a train station.
The Olodo station shared something with the Omi-Adio. When the train crawled past it by 10 am, serious work was ongoing. Both stations were not ready. The Abeokuta station, which the train got to by 10:30 a.m was visibly, the biggest of the stations; still under construction. Something was very significant here. The workers seemed more serious, as heavy equipment on the track delayed the journey, both to and fro. Lagos. Enruote Lagos, the delay was for 5 minutes, while enruote Ibadan, 30 minutes.
Papalanto station was not different. The train got here by 11:05 am and a few workers were seen working. By 11:26 and 11:55, the train got to Kajola and Agbado stations, respectively, all under construction. By 12: 05 am, it got to Iju – its last stop – and the two passengers disembarked.
Excellent interior
The two coaches are executive, Ikwuka told me. With the capacity of 24 passengers each, it will not be used when full commercial operations commence in April 2020. “We have the standard coach with capacity of about 84 passengers”, she said.
A step into the train reveals a bar fitted with a mid-sized refrigerator, microwave, water dispenser and a coffee maker. Although, they were empty and desolate with a mid-aged NRC staff seated behind the empty counter brandishing huge smiles, when put to full use, it would bring great satisfaction to passengers.
From the bar, an array of bright red adjustable chairs greeted the sight. The redness is romanced by cast-off of the fluorescent light from the train’s roof. With a foldable wine holder, half the size of nursery school pupils’ black writing slate in the 1990s, passengers could comfortable place a glass of wine and bottle of water alongside a modest notepad without a blink. And it is beautifully tucked in an opening on the left arm resting space of the chair.
The floor, completely covered with rug, gives a cool feel capable of swallowing every leg that step on it, in comfort. Then the LCD screens. Strategically hung – three per coach – though not used during the trip, would, no doubt, enhance passengers’ experience onboard. The train also has a lavatory and a neat restroom.
But this beauty and perhaps, others untold may soon flutter into hindsight, only remembered in crushed expectations when the executive coaches give way for the standard.
Stubborn traders
When the train got to Iju, the locomotive had to be changed in preparation for the return trip. So, the crew decided to move back to Agbado where there was a standby locomotive. Gradually, it crawled up and quaked on. But then, traders at Iju had turned the railway into a makeshift trade centre filled with buzz.
With their umbrellas spread wide and the sun sending its fist-strong, scorching rays onto their faces, they turned deaf ears to the blaring horns of the train.
Bystanders and pedestrians embraced the untoward deafness, too. Pedestrians refused to walk off the track, all listening in prepared deafness as the train approached, while bystanders some hands akimbo, others spotting smiles, watched away a significant part of their ears. At this point, the fledgling danger had to be nipped.
The train stopped and some NRC staff had to literally bark and a second horn operated manually by a Chinese engineer and his assistant. With these, the train was allowed to pass.
Mixed expectation
It was a tale of satisfaction and waste of time for the two passengers enroute Lagos. For Mrs Tinuola Lomowa, the trip was a clear departure from her previous experiences. Before now, she spent 5 gruelling hours on a noisy train without air conditioner to Lagos. But the new train means she can get to Iju in 3 hours. “It is faster than the old trains I used to join. Then, it was up to five hours but this is only three hours. The environment is safe and the service is good”, she told me.
But Mrs Victoria Oyaade thinks it was very slow. Looking through the window to catch a view of the lush greenness of Olodo, she decried the slow pace of the train. “It is very slow. I thought it would take about one hour to get to Lagos but it is already an hour and I hear the journey just began,” she complained.
“It could kill a lot of things for passengers. Suppose you have something to attend to, you wouldn’t join this train because you will end up regretting it. Remember, it is supposed to be a speed train.”
and then