Stakeholders in the transportation sector have urged the Federal Government to rehabilitate the narrow gauge rail line from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri to ease movement of people and goods.
They made the appeal while responding to a national survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on the state of railway lines in the country.
The stakeholders along the corridor, particularly residents of Nasarawa, Kogi and Niger states decried the vandalism of the rail track which passed through the capital cities and other towns and villages in the states.
They appealed to the federal government to improve on and expand the rail services for efficient transportation system.
Hajiya Salamatu Usman, a trader in Lafia, the capital city of Nasarawa state recalled how she used to travel by train from Lafia to Kaduna and other Northern states in the 1980s to buy goods.
She pointed out that reviving the rail transportation would greatly impact on the well-being of the masses.
Mr Samuel Godiya, a retired civil servant, said that rail transportation would go a long way to cushion the hardship being faced by the masses as a result of removal of fuel subsidy.
“I remember vividly in those days how farm produce, cattle and even petroleum products were transported by train and things were relatively cheaper.
“We want the government to consider reviving the rail lines in order to make life easy for the common man. The railway is the easiest mode of transportation for the masses to transport their goods,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Gyuk Ayuba-Haruna, Principal Technical Officer, Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Lafia Station, told NAN that substantial portion of the Port Harcourt – Maiduguri narrow gauge in Nasarawa state had been vandalised.
He said the corporation had been collaborating with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and other security agencies to tackle cases of vandalism of the railway tracks.
“Honestly, the security agencies have been very supportive in checkmating the activities of these vandals.
“If you go to the Federal High Court in Lafia, you will see some of our equipment recovered from vandals as exhibits.
“Several of the culprits had been prosecuted and serving various jail terms,” he said.
Ayuba-Haruna said government’s effort to revitalise the railways would go a long way to ameliorate the plight of the masses.
“As workers in the railway corporation, we are daily inundated with questions from the people about the fate of rail transportation and the need to restore it for the benefit of the common man,” he said.
In Lokoja, some stakeholders lamented the inefficiency of the NRC in expanding its services to towns and cities in the 36 states, for movement of people, raw materials and goods.
Comrade Simeon Opaluwa, a Criminologist, decried the absent of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the railway business in the country, which had hampered expansion of its services to the towns and cities of the country.
Opaluwa stated that there were so many abandoned rail tracks in the states.
“This is simply because of the inefficiency of NRC and lack of capacity to maintain the old rail lines, thereby exposing the tracks to vandals and thieves,’’ he said.
He cited the Ajaokuta-Otukpo rail line, which was abandoned decades ago, desiring the attention of the government to resuscitate, in order to boost economic activities of the people in the areas.
According to him, the Ajaokuta-Otukpo rail line is a project conceptualised over four decades back, with the purpose of transporting products from Ajaokuta steel company to other parts of the country.
The criminologist said that the project was initiated at the same time with the Itape-Ajaokuta-Warri rail line, with the same purpose.
“Unfortunately, while the Itape-Ajaokuta-Warri rail line was upgraded to standard gauge, completed and put into use, the Ajaokuta-Okukpo line project never saw the light of the day.
“What we see on ground now is only the 3km rail bridge constructed across the River Niger from Ajaokuta to Itobe which is 30 per cent completed.
“Ajaokuta-Otukpo rail line runs through Kogi Eastern senatorial district with a design of a train station in Okaba, an agrarian community with the largest coal production activities in the country,’’ he said.
“The economic benefits of this abandoned project for over 40 years cannot be over-emphasised,
“It prides itself as the shortest and cheapest means of transportation of coal from Okaba to Ajaokuta steel company, Itakpe Iron Ore Company, and Obajana cement for their electricity generation.
Opaluwa added: “Railway is one means of transportation that can help reduce the pressure on the roads along that corridor, as it is presently been experienced.
“It will help in the transportation of agricultural produce, such as cassava, yam, cashew, palm oil etc from these agrarian communities to other part of the country.
“It will also be useful in the transportation of steel products to the North Eastern and South Eastern part of the country, including other North central states’’.
Opaluwa added that it will ease the transportation of ceramics products from the Ceramic companies in Ajaokuta to the North-Eastern part of the country.
He said there would be reduction in the average travel time from the North Eastern part of Nigeria to the South-Western part of the country.
“The railway will also help in the creation of employment around the corridor, thereby reducing youth restiveness, agitation and other forms of criminality.
“It will help in the opening of new towns along this corridor, thereby boosting the economic activity of those places,’’ Opaluwa said.
He appealed to President Bola Tinubu to award contract for the completion of the all-important project, in line with his Renewed Hope Agenda of transforming the transportation, agriculture, steel and energy sectors of the economy.
