The Rector of Kaduna Polytechnic (KadPoly), Professor Idris Mohammed Bugaje on Monday called on Nigerian authorities not to rely wholly on the Chinese to fix the railway industry in the country.
Prof. Bugaje disclosed this at a reception held in Kaduna to honour 10 pioneer staff of Railway Engineering Technology Department of the institution that recently returned from a training in India.
He claimed that at the moment the Chinese are the ones solely constructing railway tracks, bringing in locomotives and managing all railway projects in Nigeria, adding that this is unsustainable for a country that wants to develop.
He argued that young Nigerians must be trained to replace the Chinese in the railway industry.
“Nigeria must be able to manage their railway industry because at the moment the Chinese are doing everything. They are doing the construction of the tracks; they are bringing in locomotives and managing it. This is unsustainable. We must train young Nigerians to take charge,” he said.
Prof. Bugaje added that the Federal Government was on track for taken railway industry to next level but said the institution have a team of 10 that have gotten the latest training in Railway Technology and were exposed practically to take railway sector to the next level.
In his remarks, the Chairman, Governing Council of KadPoly, Alhaji Hassan Yusuf said there is hope that before the end of this administration, all states capital will be connected through railway network.
He also said railway has come to stay in Nigeria because many people prefer travelling from Kaduna to Abuja by railway.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Dr. Masa’udu Adamu Kazaure, described the ten engineers that returned from India as pioneers, just as he lauded the institution for taken up the challenge to help revive the nation’s railway industry.
