Two weeks ago, I thought of experimenting with the idea of a trip from Lagos to Ibadan via the railway. I then commenced an exercise in testing the e-compliance rate of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) on the Lagos-Ibadan route. If I could get e-tickets, it would be possible for me to put to test the much talked about railway modernisation policy.
The administrations of President Goodluck Jonathan and that of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria had committed huge sums, especially from Chinese loans into the Railway revival project and I think that service delivery in that sector is worth checking out.
So far, Nigeria has sunk at least $5bn, including the $1.6bn Lagos/Ibadan train service, into the sector, funds the country must pay back willy nilly.
My investigations, baclearly confirmed that the country might have dumped its scarcely available cash into bottomless pit. As soon as I logged on to the NRC site, what welcomed me confirmed all I didn’t want to see-this is one entity without a business orientation. The website is not user-friendly and calling the phone contacts of supposed customer care officers on display would only confirm that funds committed to this service might have been washed down the drain.
After searching relentlessly through the icons on display on that site without any hint on ticket booking, I decided to call one of the numbers of the customer care agents. The voice on the other side was damn cold. As if I had roused the person from a badly needed sleep. I nearly apologised. But I realised that as the would- I had nothing ro apologise for. Customer they say is always right. The person on the other side was expected to show more courtesy. So I went ahead to put the question: I saw this number on the NRC site, I guess you are the Customer care officer.’ The cold response from a lady on the other side said it all. You were not expected to call this number, was the feeling I got. The lady’s voice mumbled something I couldn’t understand. I cut the line and redialed, thinking its was the network that was misbehaving.
The lady picked up again and this time the voice was audile. So I repeated my question and asked if there was a way I could book the Ibadan train. She said she would send me a link in 30 minutes. Two weeks after that conversation, I am yet to receive a link from the NRC staff. Imagine that was a foreigner, who had heard so much about the train and had banked on the transportation system as the only means of getting to Ibadan.
One thing came clear from that brief encounter, the NRC cannot be relied upon to pay back the $1.6 billion loan the nation spent to put the Lagos-Ibadan train service in place.
While I was still wracking my head as to why a country would obtain what is equivalent to a usury and dedicate the funds to setting up of an unproductive venture, the man at the helm of affairs of the NRC, Fidet Okhiria came on hand to bail me out.
Okhiria was at the interactive session organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on the 2024-2026 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), wherein he provided insights into what he called racketeering and unhelpful practices staff of the NRC had perfected in their desperate bid to ruin a legacy we should all be proud of.
He told the lawmakers that some staff members of the NRC had engaged in fraud including ticket racketeering, smuggling passengers into trains and collecting cash from passengers without remitting the funds. According to him, security operatives — police and staff of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) attached to the train stations are also involved in ticket racketeering.
When asked whether it was true that NRC workers are engaged in ticket racketeering, He said “It is true. Very true.”
He added: “The solution to that is to introduce the e-ticket which we have done. The government has approved and we have deployed them. Even with that, it is not just (our) staff, the security people we engaged.
“We have a video. Thank God we have cameras. So, we are dealing with the commissioner to bring his men and civil defence (operatives) to book. They collaborate with our staff.”
He noted that the corporation had started dealing with the situation, though, by ensuring the availability of e-ticketing, and dealing decisively with the perpetrators by making sure that those who board the trains without tickets don’t get to their destinations.
The NRC boss said, “But now what we are trying to do, which our law and our act permit us to do, is to drop the people (passengers) at the next available station.
“So, we dropped more than 50 passengers at Agbor last Sunday. I think with that they are learning their lessons.”
Okhiria said officials who engage in ticket racketeering are punished, adding that while some staff members are demoted, others are sacked.
He said, “Some have been sacked, some have been demoted — depending on their gravity.”
According to him, insecurity, especially on the Abuja-Kaduna route has affected the trip on the axis, impacting NRC’s revenue.
The MD of NRC said there has been a decline in revenue on the Abuja, Kaduna route from N520 million monthly to N150 million since the terrorist attack on the service, adding that trips were reduced to two from five everyday.
Looking at the situation on ground, Okhiria’s submissions are only half truths. He is right to say that officials of the Raikway have been involved in underhand dealings that have combined to destroy the service. He is however far from track on the e-ticketing initiative.
The story of Nigerian Railways is one of the son of a butcher who is reduced to struggling with bones. It is a case of suffering amidst plenty. The Nigerian population and the volume of passenger and haulage activities should make the service one of the most lucrative business entities around the world. What we have is a comatose organisation, reeking in archival wreckage of pre-colonial assets that are completely out of tune with today’s world.
Even with the injection of some new technology and fresh funds, the service had held on to its unenviable past, dragging the investments into nothingness.
The Nigerian Infrastructure Concessioning Regulatory Commission, in a document provided a trajectory of the sector thus: “The development of railways in Nigeria started from Lagos Colony to Ibadan in March 1896, by the British government. The Lagos Government Railway began operations in March 1901 and was extended to Minna, Niger State, in 1911, where it met the Baro–Kano Railway Station that was built by the government of Northern Nigeria between 1907 and 1911.
“Following the discovery of coal at Udi, the Eastern Railway was built to Port Harcourt between 1913 and 1916. This railway was extended to Kaduna in 1927, connecting the Eastern Railway to the Lagos–Kano Railway. The Eastern Railway was extended to its northeastern terminus of Maiduguri between 1958 and 1964 by the administration of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.”
The World Bank had also estimated that as of 2019, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) had a total rail network of 65,760km in 32 countries.
Though good news emanated from the Railways in recent years, with statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicating some improving performance from the second quarter of 2021, the task at hand to make the Railwys a success remains a far cry.
The NBS reported a sharp rise in the statistics and performance of the sector following renewed interests from the populace as a result of recent investments.
The Bureau said that in 2021, the number of passengers rose by 80 percent to 565,385 from 108,238 achieved in the corresponding quarter of 2020. The volume of Goods/Cargos (Tons) also rose by 80 percent in quarter 2, 2021 from 42,782 to 8,691 in 2020. Revenue Generated from Passengers rose from just N320 million recorded in quarter 2 2020 to N1.083 billion recorded in the same quarter in 2021. The Revenue Generated from Goods/Cargos increased in quarter 2 2021 from 71,555,762.00 to 66,293,398 relative to the previous year (Q2).
Report presented to the House of Representatives by the chief execjtige of Railways, however, indicated that the figures are depreciating sharply. That’s the sad reality the Railways have brought on this country.
In trying to provide a way forward, the World Bank had submitter that “Good governance for railways is governance that drives the railway to be (i) market-oriented, (ii) efficient, and (iii) financially sustainable and to (iv) manage the railway assets for the long term.”
It added that the railway must be empowered to operate commercially, devoid of political interference and theft of its resources.
There are a plethora of literature that point the way forward for the Railways, what is needed is the political will to get the service on a sound footing.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then