The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Dr Kayode Opeifa, has said Nigeria’s railway system suffered decades of neglect after independence, leaving the country to grapple with infrastructure gaps that are still affecting transportation and economic development.
Opeifa said the NRC was not performing badly, but acknowledged that the corporation should have achieved significantly more if successive governments had sustained investment and avoided what he described as years of inaction and policy mistakes.
He made the remarks during an interview on TVC’s This Morning Show, where he outlined the Federal Government’s plans to revitalise the railway system, expand partnerships with states and the private sector, improve freight services and connect major cities, ports and economic centres across the country.
According to him, Nigeria inherited a railway network that had been deliberately developed during the pre-independence period to connect the eastern and western parts of the country with the north.
He said the system subsequently lost momentum after independence as attention shifted largely to railway operations without corresponding modernisation and expansion.
‘From 1960, we started focusing only on operations and this we did till about 2000 when former President Obasanjo started the modernization of the NRC,’ he said.
Opeifa also recalled that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo had earlier envisaged the importance of standard-gauge rail infrastructure, but said the idea was not sufficiently pursued at the time.
He said another mistake occurred after the Obasanjo administration when the modernisation process was interpreted as an abandonment of the existing narrow-gauge network.
‘Sadly again, after Chief Obasanjo’s administration left, we started misinterpreting the modernization process by abandoning the narrow gauge, which was a huge mistake,’ he said.
He said the consequences of the decisions taken over decades continued to affect the corporation.
‘The mess-up of 60 years after independence is still haunting us,’ he said.
‘We inherited a sick railway system’
The NRC boss compared the condition inherited by the present administration to a patient who had been living with an undiagnosed illness.
‘When the current administration came, they took over a sick person who is not aware of his sickness till he was taken to the hospital only to discover that he had cancer,’ he said.
He said the administration had now identified the structural problems confronting the railway sector and was seeking to correct them by first making existing infrastructure more productive.
‘This administration has made its diagnosis and has seen the mistakes which should be opportunity to make things better,’ he said.
Opeifa said the immediate priority was to optimise existing railway infrastructure while simultaneously expanding the network.
‘We have to optimise what we have in the first instance. Make sure that what we have works for us,’ he said.
The NRC managing director said the removal of railway development from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list had opened a new phase in the development of rail transportation in Nigeria.
He said states and private investors could now play a more direct role in developing and operating rail services in partnership with the Federal Government.
According to him, the Lagos Blue and Red Line projects demonstrate the possibilities created by closer cooperation between federal and state governments.
He said the Lagos Red Line, in particular, represented what the NRC described as ‘Railing with the State’, where states leverage national railway infrastructure to develop their own transportation systems.
Opeifa said similar discussions were taking place in other parts of the country.
He cited Plateau State, where arrangements were being made around the Jos-Bukuru line, with plans to extend the service to Kuru.
He also said the Zamfara State Government was working on operating a 19-kilometre railway section in Gusau.
The Federal Government, he added, was providing funding support to states for the development of intra-city metro rail projects in Kano, Kaduna and Lagos.
He said the emerging model would allow national railway infrastructure to support state-level transportation systems instead of operating as completely separate networks.
New 25-year railway plan
Opeifa said the government was also reviewing and reconceptualising the country’s 25-year railway development plan to ensure that major cities in all 36 states were eventually connected by rail.
He said regional development commissions were also beginning to identify opportunities to leverage the national railway network.
According to him, the South West Development Commission was working on logistics and passenger train services using the national track that passes through several communities in the region.
He listed routes through Oyo, Osogbo, Iwo, Ede, Moniya, Omi-Adé, Abeokuta and Olodo as some of the corridors with potential for expanded rail services.
He said similar conversations were underway in the South-East.
‘I recently met with the Governor of Abia State, and I also met with the Governor of Enugu State, and they are all talking about their own South Eastern Railway System,’ he said.
Opeifa added that the North-East Development Commission and North-Central Development Commission had also written to the NRC, with discussions expected to commence soon.
‘Every state and region is now showing interest and the national government is ready,’ he said.