What Itori youths, businesses gain from Lagos-Ibadan railway construction

 The rail yard that services the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan railway construction, in terms of components supply, has its location in Itori, a town in Ogun State. Since the construction work started, little or no mention has been made about the community but after a visit, TUNDE BUSARI writes about the significant economic benefits that the community has recorded.

Since the Federal Government of Nigeria sometime in 2016 awarded the new Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail railway project contract to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to ease transportation problem which the public had, over the years, endured on Lagos-Ibadan expressway, much has been heard about the project.

The Apapa terminus and Ibadan end of the work has received attention of both conventional and social media. However, little mention has been made about Itori, a sleepy town which plays a strategic role in the construction work. Welcome to Itori, the headquarters of Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Sharing boundary with Ewekoro, the acclaimed town of cement, Itori is the host to the rail yard where railway components are assembled, fabricated and distributed to sites of construction between Ogun and Oyo States corridor of the stretch. Railway components such as railway sleeper, steel rail, beam and numerous others are found in that yard which is comfortably sitting on a vast expanse of land, the size of an average community.

Long, medium and short trucks were parked in the premises while some of them were loading and carrying beams and sleepers from one spots to another. Trains were also seen shuttling between Itori and construction sites on Ibadan-Abeokuta corridor. The trains, like trucks, also carried construction components to sites.

The entrance to the compound is manned by a male security guard, who put on yellow and black uniform and keep eagle eye on the people coming and going out of the premises. The attentiveness of the guard, who was said to be working on shift, gave an indication of safety of workers and equipment of the construction company.

Regular security agency, especially some military personnel, is also stationed not only as a back-up but also a preventive measure against unforeseen attack on the expatriates with veiled reference to the escapades of kidnappers in other side of the country.

Sited at the right side near the entrance is the administrative offices of the company, which is carved out of the premises and guarded by soldiers. Significantly, workshop, where mechanical, fabrication and bricklaying vocations, are operated, compliments the feature of the place.

Nigerian Tribune correspondent sighted the Chinese expatriates in and around the office complex working assiduously in individuals and groups apparently to meet the federal government’s December deadline for the completion of the project.

Lat September, the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, during an inspection tour of some substations between Abeokuta and Ibadan, bared his mind over the pace of work, insisting on December target.

It was gathered that the choice of Itori was aided by geography of the town and accommodating nature of the people. Although none of the workers, approached by our correspondent on suitability of Itori for the railway yard, volunteered information with him, allegedly acting on directive from higher authorities, the plain, savanna-like terrain of the location was said to have made it attractive to the construction company.

“You know those white would always do things after carrying out proper research. They must have visited other places but found none as good as this place. That must have been the reason they sited this yard here.

“You can see the way the facilities sit on the ground as if they had been long sited here; whereas they came just after they started the contract,” a 63-year-old man who claimed to have worked and retired from the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) but who craved for anonymity told our correspondent.

The presence of the railway yard in Itori has since opened window of employment opportunities to hundreds of youths from the town and neighbouring communities up to Abeokuta, Ifo, Ota and even Lagos.

Those youths have been offered different category of jobs with which they eke out a living in their respective homes. Transport fare from Itori to Abeokuta is N200, a reason that made the job more attractive to the youths from Abeokuta in particular.

Emmanuel Olukoya (not real name) is a holder of Ordinary National Diploma (OND) from a private polytechnic. The 27-year-old is full of praise to the federal government for the Lagos-Ibadan railway project, disclosing that his employment in one of the workshops has bailed him out of suffering to which he was subjected after he had completed his studies but had no profitable job to do.

“I got to know that they were recruiting here some months ago and came around. I was given job and the opportunity I am enjoying now. I am enjoying my work here. There is nothing like a young having something to do. I am very happy.

Olukoya, who admitted that he was enjoying his job, applauded the construction company and the expatriates for impacting in them additional knowledge on the job. He said the Chinese are good to work with, especially for their attitude to duty, an attribute which, according to him, was responsible to the growth of their home economy in the world.

‘They are showing us why their country is progressing. The way they work is totally different from our own here. They are no nonsense people; always serious and business-like. They don’t give room for jokes and other things that waste time on work.

“To say the truth, I am learning fast working with them. It means if I have any opportunity to travel to their country, I will enjoy my stay over there. If you ask other workers, they will tell you the same thing. Only the lazy ones have come and ran away when they realised there is no room for laziness. I live in Abeokuta but I only go at weekend,” he said.

It was further learnt that a social group, known as Itori Youths Association (IYA), played a crucial role during recruitment of workers at the yard. The body comprising energetic indigenes of the town, gave the employment opportunity wide publicity to ensure that unemployed indigenes were engaged.

One of the benefits the railway yard has brought to Itori, which has earned the company accolade, is the road that connects the premises with the township. The three-kilometre road is well laid with asphalt and made the trip to the company easy.

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Besides, what can pass for mammy market has emerged in the proximity of the yard. Occupying both sides of the road leading to the entrance, the market, made of impoverished outlets, is operated by retailers such as food vendors, drink joints operator. A boutique, where new and fairly used clothings are displayed for sale, also operates.

Generally, commercial activities at the yard, have generated employment for the operators. The popular Premier Lotto, a betting business, also has its presence with three units of operation at the market. An operator who declined to disclose his name, said the business is favourable and attributed the presence of three units to the state of the business.

Motorcycle operators are also beneficiaries of the railway yard as their shuttle from town to the site has increased.

One of the okada operators who gave his name as Sola attested to the “I was at a point tempted to drop my okada and seek a job at the place (yard). I was told the white people pay them well; and they don’t also owe them. But I changed my mind because I had vowed not to work under anybody again. But I am making little money from my okada. I mean business is good with the workers coing here on daily basis,” he said.

The overview of the Olu of Itori, Oba AbdulFatai Akamo on the site aligns with the sentiment expressed by the youths and other members of the town, most of whom awarded distinction grade to him for, according to them, facilitating the site to the town.

Oba Akamo, however, was silent over the appraisal but acknowledged the positive impact of the yard on his domain, commending the federal government for deeming it fit to do away with the old railway which, he stressed, was constructed about a century ago by the colonial government.

He said the new railway and the yard in his town is the needed opportunity which he had long prayed for to ease the suffering of teeming youths, who, he emphasised, were ready to work but who could not find gainful job due to the state of the nation’s economy.

“I am the happiest person as father of the youths and old. When they are doing well, I am happy. When they face social challenges, I also identify with them. That is my philosophy of leadership that make the youths to surround me. With the job, one can feel the absence of tension. Everybody is engaged now. Those who are not working there have something else doing. I am happy with the development,” he remarked.

Oba Akamo also said that when the railway is completed, it would boost the nation’s economy because, he said, of the strategic importance of Lagos to the economy of Nigeria, adding that what is lost to Lagos-Ibadan expressway can wreck economy of small countries.

The monarch also commended the good conduct of the construction company but urged them to show more understanding with their workers. “I am blessed with law-respecting youths who would rather go about their daily job peacefully and later enjoy themselves after work. This is one advantage I enjoy being the Olu of Itori in the past 14 years and nine months,” he said.