I was excited when Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State hinted on plans of the Rivers State Government to construct a Railway system in Port Harcourt metropolis to ease the transportation woes of the inhabitants of the Galden City. I was elated because I have for long believed that the railway system holds the key to the mass mobility challenges of Nigerians not only in Port Harcourt but also across the whole nation. So for the Governor to have come to this realisation is a pointer to the fact that at last some of our leaders have began to think in people-oriented mode.

The Railway system which is indubitably the cheapest, very effective and significantly safe mass transit medium suitable for a predominantly poor society like Nigeria has suffered continual neglect in the last three decades leading to total collapse of Railway infrastructure across the nation.

Our British colonial masters were visionary enough to know the importance of the railway system. What we have as a Railway network in the country today was bequeathed to us by them. One could not help but imagine that had Nigeria remained a little longer under British rule, her Railway infrastructure may have been developed to the standards obtainable in Europe.

Apart from transportation, the Railway was also a useful platform for national integration. At the time when air transportation was rare, the railway network from Lagos to Nguru and the one from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, provided the main hub of economic activity and social interaction between the Northern and southern parts of the country. Then the journey from Lagos to Kano could take two days with frequent stops at the numerous stations along the way. These stops provided opportunities for the passengers to interact with different ethnic groups either as co- passengers or traders in the stations along the journey.

Though very slow then, the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s Railway system was very effective, as far as the technology of that era was concerned, in moving Nigerians and their goods from one part of the country to another. Students, traders, civil servants, artisans, applicants and even politicians found a very affordable means of mobility. They did not need to own cars or be able to fly in order to cope with travel demands of their, business, profession or family. But that was in the ‘good-old-days’.

After Independence, the British maintenance culture endured for a while, so also the Railway system, but the ‘bad-new-days’ set in when the military boys in leadership realised they could live luxury lives on public funds without questions from we ‘bloody civilians’. They could fly themselves and family to any destination they desired at the expense of the public purse or use public funds to buy big cars that could ferry them swiftly in protected convoys to destinations of their choice. The need to maintain and continuously upgrade the railway system began to wan in their egotistic imaginations.

The few civilian administrators that interspaced military dictatorships also saw governance as an opportunity to better their lots and not that of the people they pretend to serve. They out-shined the military in the art of corruption and neglect of public infrastructure.

The neglect of people-oriented public services is not limited to the railway system. It pervades the whole polity. Why should the Nigerian leader bother to build public water system when they (leaders) could sink boreholes in their palatial mansions built and furnished with taxpayers’ sweat? Why fix NEPA, when they could buy private generators? Why fund public schools when their children can be sent to choice schools abroad? Why rehabilitate the hospitals when they could jet out monthly for medical check-up at government expense? Why bother about the roads and rails when they believe they can fly (indeed) fly? Apologies to R.Kelly.

Thus began the systematic disintegration of the Railway system. Aging coaches were not replaced as at when due. Infrastructure at the stations and carriage capacity was not upgraded to meet passenger traffic. The trains were not upgraded to match new technologies. Staff of the Corporation were owed salaries for years; their morale was killed. All these led to a logical drop in their dedication to duty and efficiency. Eventually passengers turned to road transport as an alternative, for long journeys hitherto done by rail.

As a result, various modes of road transportation emerged, mainly run by the private sector to fill the gap created by the dying Railway system. The era of luxurious buses and their night travels was born. Today all kinds of vehicles ply long-distance routes ferrying thousands of passengers daily at exorbitant costs to their destinations but many to their graves.

A situation where only 38 towns in the whole country are linked by a rail line is not just embarrassing but unacceptable. I wish to quote my earlier piece on November 01, 2007 titled:’ Legitimacy or not, let the work begin’ where wrote: ‘There is no reason whatsoever why each state capital in the country cannot be linked to a rail line. We have the money, going by the billions of dollars reportedly looted by our past (and present) leaders and stashed away in foreign banks.’ It is sad, very sad, that 50years of petro dollars has left Nigeria no better off in infrastructural development than the pre-oil era.

So I welcome Governor Amaechi’s plan for a Railway system in Port Harcourt just like Fashola’s plan for Lagos. However I believe Gov. Amaechi needs to unveil the blueprint of the proposed Railway in more unambiguous terms like the Lagos Governor has done. Unlike Fashola who clearly plans two Rail lines, the Red Line (Agbado to Marina) and Blue Line (Okokomaiko to Marina) with both projected to carry more than 1.6 million passengers per day, Amaechi only spoke of plans to build a ‘Railway system’ that would guzzle 1.8billion without mentioning where it will start or end? What kind of train technology is the government thinking about? Will they run on diesel or coal or bio-fuel or even electricity?

I ask these questions because one would expect that before the Governor could put a cost to the proposed Railway, he should have a good idea of the scope and technology of the scheme, if not then the proposal could easily pass for a claim akin to either woolgathering or deception or both. Lack of clarity on proposed government projects could kill the projects even before they kick off.

I also find Amaechi’s claim that the proposed Rail line is intended to ease the suffering of the people, occasioned by the recent ban on commercial motorcycles (okada) in the Port Harcourt metropolis untenable. With all respect, I disagree with you Sir! Okada and railway are not substitutes to each other by any stretch of imagination. Each have a peculiar need to meet in the daily lives of Nigerians. The segment of human mobility need served by Okada cannot be filled by railway and vice versa.

Even though the details of the proposed rail line are sketchy, it is sensible to believe that Amaechi does not intend to put a Railway line on each street where okada used to take people from the bus stops to their doorsteps. The rough, muddy and pothole laden streets in Port Harcourt metropolis could only be accessed by okada as buses or taxis often find them impassable especially in the rainy season when these potholes become pools of water. How palliative then is the railway going to be in this regard?

One is wont to suppose that this claim from the Governor exposes his superficial knowledge on the (Okada) menace he set out to curb by this ban. Very often our leaders seem to live in a world of their own far removed from the everyday realities that confront their subjects. No wonder they never seem to get anything right and thus Nigeria never works.

Banning Okada may be a step in the right direction, but the Governor must look beyond the proposed Railway line if he hopes to cushion the effect of the ban on the okada operators and their passengers. Massive rehabilitation of the street network in the city could make it possible for taxi cabs or even buses to drop off people at their door steps, thus eliminating the demand for okada.

The emergence of Okada as a means of transport for majority of Nigerians needs to be viewed in the context of demand and supply as well as necessity. Because the government has consistently failed to live up o her obligations in terms of welfare of the citizens, Nigerians have in response learnt to adopt, sometimes dangerous, self-help measures. Okada is one of them.

The other one is ‘I-pass-my-neighbour’ (small portable generator). The Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) reported recently that an estimated 60 million Nigerians use generators of varying sizes spending about $13.35 billion per annum on fuel. The Asians are in good business exporting these generators to Nigeria. I-pass-my-neighbour has wiped out whole families through the toxic fumes they release in poorly ventilated spaces where most Nigerians living in poor housing conditions, are constrained to place them. But one cannot ban these generators without first improving the power supply from the public source.

So I look forward to ride on Amaechis Rail line but I suggest that apart from the intra-city rail line, the government of Rivers State should also consider going into partnership with the Abia State government to build a rail for a very fast Shuttle Train from Port Harcourt to Aba. The deal could be structured in such a way that each state would collect revenue on trips emanating from her terminus. This model can be adopted by other states across the nation.

Very fast trains are a good option for modern rapid transit as they have lower carbon emissions per passenger trip than either road or air transport. Countries like France, Japan, Italy, Germany, Taiwain, China, Korea and Spain have already adopted this technology. The United States has one high-speed rail line that links Washington, D.C. and Boston via New York City. President Obama even took a 7-hour train ride on his way to Washington for his historic inauguration January 20^th.

We need a fast rail network to replace the obsolete gauge currently in place. Technology has produced trains that could travel over 400 kilometres per hour. The Maglev train in Shanghai has a top operational speed 431 km/h. Examples of desirable fast shuttle train rail lines in other parts of the country include, Lagos-Ibadan, Enugu-Onitsha, Abuja-Kaduna, Ibadan-Ilorin, Ilorin-Minna, Minna–Abuja and Kaduna-Kano. The federal Government should create a special Railway Development Fund, which should be mandated to draw up and execute a short term (10-year) and long-term (20-50year) Railway Development Plan for Nigeria in partnership with private foreign investors’.

Robot  # 1 | 29.01.2009 02:35

I was excited when Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State hinted on plans of the Rivers State Government to construct a Railway system in Port Harcourt metropolis to ease the transportation woes of the inhabitants of the Galden City. I was elated because I have for long believed that the railway system holds the key to the mass mobility challenges of Nigerians not only in Port Harcourt but also across the whole nation. So for the Governor to have come to this realisation is a pointer to the fact that at last some of our leaders have began to think in people-oriented mode. The Railway system which is indubitably the cheapest, very effective and significantly safe mass transit medium suitable for a predominantly poor society like Nigeria has suffered continual neglect in the last three decades leading to total collapse of Railway infrastructure across the nation. Our British colonial masters were visionary enough to know the importance of the railway system. What we...Read the full article.

Kabikala  # 2 | 29.01.2009 06:34

I agree totally with your views. The benefits of an effective rail transport system in an economy like that of Nigeria is too huge that it really amazes me why our leaders have not thought of it. I once listened to Odia Ofeimun on a TV interview programme where he mentioned his efforts at persuading the then AD governors of the south west states to connect their states through rail if the Federal Goverment was not willing to do so. None heeded his advice then. The benefits of a good rail system includes not only providing a more cost-effective means of transporting goods and passengers, but will also lead to a major reduction in the frequency and severity of road traffic accidents as most trailers and tankers will be off the roads. The life span of the roads will increase and more passengers will go by rail rather than by road hence reducing the number of cars and people exposed to danger on our roads. My own summary of the simple solution to Nigeria's economic problems is a four-point agenda: 1.) Power 2.) Rail 3.) Security 4.) Anti-corruption