WHEN President Goodluck Jonathan announced, yesterday, that “contract will soon be awarded for a standard fast train link between Lagos and Ibadan,” there was no way he could gauge the level of hope his announcement raised in ordinary Nigerians.
Dr. Jonathan, who spoke through Vice President Namadi Sambo at the opening of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL, conference in Abuja also said his administration was tackling infrastructure deficit across the nation head_on, as according to him, the present situation was unacceptable.
Excellent verbiage, especially at this time when hope for life is on a downward spiral on the heels of bombings, killings, robberies, kerosene scarcity, and other life_threatening events.
Nigeria must be one of the very few countries in the world where children are born, grow, go to university, marry, and get set to become grandparents without ever having seen or boarded a passenger train, except when they travel abroad, or in the movies.
This deficiency in the nation’s transport system, despite the fact that we inherited a Railways Corporation from the British, is simply inexplicable. The result has been undue pressure on our roads and bridges, causing them to fail serially, and unspeakable carnage as a result of motor accidents.
Heavy vehicles
Virtually all our roads are clogged with heavy, articulated vehicles, either carrying containers from the ports, or tankers ferrying fuel to where it is needed. Of course, the rail system does this more economically. Too often, they cause one accident or the other, resulting in loss of lives and investment therein.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, between 2002-2007, the nation recorded 167,166 accidents (reported), in which 113,567 were variously injured, while 52,599 persons lost their lives. Thousands more must have been killed and injured in other unreported accidents. It is probable that these lives may not have been lost if we had a functional rail system.
However, a rail line linking Ibadan with Lagos, the nation’s two most populous cities, is long over due, and it is in this respect that the President’s announcement kindles hope for users of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which, apart from being a death trap, is anything but an expressway as traffic jams that hold commuters in situ for hours now recur frequently.
In executing the rail project, the Federal Government might be advised to fall back on an earlier plan by Ooduá Investments for such a project. In October 2003, Sir Remi Omotoso of the Ooduá Group announced that his conglomerate had put finishing touches to plans for a Lagos-Ibadan rail line, in conjunction with Lemnar Corporation of the US. If the Oodua plan will be useful, there is no need to fritter money away on fresh design plans. Nigerians are waiting hurriedly, Mr President.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
Home
Unlabelled
Nigeria needs rail transport now, GEJ
Nigeria needs rail transport now, GEJ
NigerianEye
-
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com