Rejuvenating the railway system

By Femi Oluwasanmi

THE transportation system is an indispensable factor in assessing the development and progress of a country. No country can perform optimally without proper planning for transportation because it shapes and reshapes not only a nation but also the nature and character of its people and its relationship with other countries. That is the reason most developed countries invest heavily in the transportation system. However, experiences over the years seem to show that Nigeria is yet to harness the great opportunities inherent in the transportation system, especially the railway system. On 24th January, President Muhammadu Buhari with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State inaugurated the Lagos Blue Rail Line at Marina, Lagos State and witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the second phase which will run from Mile-2 to Okokomaiko. While commending the president for honouring his invitation, Sanwo-Olu stated that the Blue Line was a product of his timeless vision for Lagos State, though it predated the birth of his administration.

The Lagos Blue Line is the first light rail system in Nigeria expected to carry more than 500,000 passengers daily when completed, reduce traffic gridlock and increase the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state. Replicating this project at the national level will improve inter/intra-city movement, provide comfort for long distance traveling, accelerate the movement of bulk goods at a low cost, reduce environmental pollution/cost of transportation and boost the economic strength of the country. At present, the debt profile of Nigeria is above N44 trillion and it is expected to hit N77 trillion before December 2023 because out of the over N21 trillion estimated budget for 2023, only N9 trillion will be sourced from government generated revenue while close to N13 trillion is expected to be sourced from loans. Meanwhile, if the railway system is rejuvenated, Nigeria can generate up to N7.5 trillion annually from the system because of its population. That is equivalent to a quarter of the 2023 budget. This is not to talk of other sources of revenue generation that are yet to be properly harnessed in Nigeria.

Also, it would surely reduce the rate of unemployment and underemployment because more hands will be employed to operate the train and work at the stations. Currently, the population of Nigeria is estimated to be hovering around 200 million and based on the last report of the National Bureau Statistics (NBA), more than 33 percent of the population are unemployed while over 20 percent are underemployed. This suggests that more than 100 million Nigerians are struggling to survive. The more the government claims to invest in security, the more insecurity continues to spread across the country. In the South-East, for instance, the agents of terror seem to appear in the form of unknown gunmen/kidnappers while in the South-West, insecurity manifests in forms of ritual killing/kidnapping and in the North, it seems to take the forms of banditry, Boko Haram, killer herdsmen, among other unscrupulous elements that pose great threat to the smooth running of the railway system in Nigeria.

In March 2022, more than 100 on board were abducted while eight were killed when a train conveying people through Kaduna – Abuja rail track was attacked. It took more than six months before the abductees were released in batches through the help of some well-meaning Nigerians who met the abductors and offered them huge ransoms. The same would have happened if not for the rapid response of the security personnel when a train travelling through Lagos – Ibadan line ran out of fuel and stopped in the bush in 2020. Unfortunately, the report of the committee set up to investigate the cause of the incident is yet to be made known to the public till date. Nigeria as the giant of Africa ought to learn from the success stories of other countries operating the railway system particularly the UK, US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and others where it is almost impossible for any criminal gang to halt a moving train and abduct passenger(s) on board not to talk of taking them hostage for months like the one witnessed in Nigeria.

Based on the Oxford Economics Finds report, “the UK railway sector supported £42.9 billion of economic production and was associated with 710,000 jobs and £14.1 billion in tax revenues in 2019.” The same could be said of other countries running an effective and efficient railway system. Unfortunately, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated in its reports in 2019, that the “Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) only generated N2.41 billion in revenue from passengers, N362.88 million from goods or cargo and N64.58 million from other income receipts in 2019” despite the size of the country’s population. Under the current administration, about 156km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail, 327km Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail, Abuja Light Rail have been inaugurated while a ground breaking done for the construction of Kano-Maradi Standard Gauge Rail, revamping of Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri Narrow Gauge Rail and financing negotiations for Ibadan-Kano Standard Gauge Rail project are in progress, the realities on ground suggest that the desired result is yet to be achieved.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to address the issue of insecurity across the country, wage war against corruption that exists in the system, assemble the best brains to come up with recommendations on tracking down threat to tracks and cargo, and create more awareness on the existence and effectiveness of the Nigerian railway system so that government can reduce the cost of maintaining the roads across the country and generate more wealth for the nation.