The need to preserve lives and livelihood of people across the globe has made transportation system an indispensable factor in assessing the development and progress of a country. It has shown that 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 her relations with other countries. That is the reason most developed countries invest heavily in transportation system. However, experiences over the years seem to portray that Nigeria is yet to harness great opportunities embedded in transportation system, especially, the railway system.
On 24th January, 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari alongside Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state commissioned 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 is a product of his timeless vision for Lagos state, though, it predates the birth of his administration.
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 economy 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 accrued from the government generated revenue while closed 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 her population. That is equivalent to a quarter of the 2023 budget of the country. This is not to talk of other sources of revenue generation that are yet to be properly harnessed in Nigeria.
Also, it will 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% of the population are unemployed while over 20% are underemployed.
By calculation, this suggest that more than 100 millions of the country’s population are struggling to survive. No wonder, the more the government claimed 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 forms of unknown gunmen/kidnappers while in the South-west, it is manifestating informs 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 railway system in Nigeria.
In March 2022, more than 100 passengers out of the passengers on board were abducted while 8 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 begged them with huge ransom.
The same would have happened if not for the rapid response of the security personnels when a train traveling 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 giant of Africa ought to learn from the success story of other countries operating railway system particularly, the UK, US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and others where it’s almost impossible for any criminal gang irrespective of their manifestations 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.
Apart from the security mechanism installed that guaranties safety, proper planning that has made avoidable accident like the one that happened in Lagos State of recent where more than 6 persons were reported dead and scores of Lagos State workers injured impossible needed to be emulated.
This will not only prevent the occurrence of similar incident, it will also contribute to the economic growth of the country. For instance, 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 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 her population.
Under the current administration, about 156km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail, 327km Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail, Abuja Light Rail have been commissioned while a ground-breaking done for the construction of Kano-Maradi Standard Gauge Rail, and revamp of Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri Narrow Gauge Rail and financing negotiations for Ibadan-Kano Standard Gauge Rail project are in progress though, the realities on ground suggest that the desired result is yet to be achieved.
Therefore, there is urgent need to address the issue of insecurity across the country, wage war against corruption that exist in the system, assemble best brains to come up with recommendations on the gadgets that can track down threat to the tracks and cargos 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.
Oluwasanmi writes from
Ibafo, Ogun state