Ever since its invention and commencement as a means of transportation at the close of the 19th century in Britain, the railway transportation mode has surpassed all the other means of transportation in the crystallization of civilization or, the advancement of mankind.
The advantages of rail transportation include flexibility in its routings, relative capacity for bulk haulage, and lower costs to its users. As a result of the huge number of people and products conveyed by railway, it has engendered the opening up and creation of new markets and heavy industries as well as the change of hitherto remote and far-flung lands into bubbling urban centres. York in Britain, Minna, Kafanchan, and Gusau in Nigeria are illustrations of the transformative impact on cities and commercial centres.
- Twitter regulations attempt to suppress constitutional rights – Reps minority caucus
- Bank customers in Kano groan as cashless ATMs force POS patronage
The Nigerian rail system was initiated by the British colonial government essentially and solely for the purpose of evacuating agricultural produce and other raw materials from the hinterland to the seaports for onward shipment to the metropolis. Unfortunately, successive post-colonial administrations in the country amazingly failed to reinvent the nation’s railway by expanding and reshaping the infrastructure to enhance economic development and social integration. Happily, the narrative has since begun to positively change with the advent of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In line with his All Progressives Congress (APC) manifesto, President Muhammadu Buhari has pursued the agenda to holistically transform the country’s transportation infrastructure. To drive home the vision into actuality, the president went for one of the nation’s most tested, experienced, and successful political actors in the person of Chief Rotimi Amaechi. The erstwhile two-term speaker and two-term Governor of Rivers State have hugely and spectacularly delivered on the assignment.
Within a spate of six years, remarkable and unprecedented milestones have been recorded in the nation’s rail transportation system, so much more than all the feats performed by past administrations in the preceding five decades.
On assumption of office of the Minister of Transportation, Chief Rotimi Amaechi went to work by first, identifying the rail transportation infrastructure as deserving priority attention among other sectors under the ministry and, accordingly focused his attention and energy in that direction. After appraising the state of the sector, he went on to draw up a blueprint and an action plan aimed at its revival which include the completion of ongoing and abandoned projects.
In that regard, the 168-kilometer Abuja-Kaduna rail track was completed and put to use just as, the 157-kilometer Lagos-Ibadan stretch was started, completed in record time by the administration, and has already been put to use. Similarly, while the Warri–Ajaokuta rail line of 327 kilometres, abandoned for more than three decades, has been completed and put to use, the 44.7-kilometre Abuja metro line, initiated by the Johnathan government has since become a reality. The Itakpe-Baro-Abuja railway is very much on the way to joining the number of rail projects completed under the supervision of Rotimi Amaechi.
The Amaechi blueprint for the revolutionary transformation of the Nigerian Railway includes the East-West coastal rail line that will link Lagos to Calabar through Warri and another one from Lagos to the South-East commercial city of Onitsha. The contract for the Port Harcourt/Maiduguri line has just been signed. There is also the Trans-African railway that connects the Lagos-Kano track through Katsina to Maradi in the Niger Republic with eventual plans to take it across the Sahara to seaports in the Mediterranean countries of North Africa.
Admittedly, a number of these projects will not be completed with President Buhari in office and Chief Rotimi Amaechi as Minister of Transportation.
However, with much that has been accomplished, in the preceding six years and in the remaining days of this administration, a bold and formidable foundation stone has been laid for the take-off of the Nigerian railway revolution. No government that comes after this administration can neglect to build on the foundations laid by President Muhammadu Buhari through his arrowhead, Rotimi Amaechi, the ebullient, patriotic, and visionary Ikwerre wonder kid from Rivers State.
Ibrahim Hassan writes from Kaduna.
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
