At the end of last week’s FEC meeting, Minister of Transportation, Ibrahim Bio, announced a number of decisions taken in respect of Nigeria’s railways system, which in the minister’s words, “has been comatose for over 20 years, reason being that there has been very low budgetary allocations [SIC]”. Under the new plan, approval was given for “a contract for the supply of 25 units of C25-EMPD diesel locomotives”, which are to be delivered in eight months at a cost of $76.2m. Furthermore, in eight months, rehabilitation of tracks will commence in the railways, while train drivers will be trained, because, according to Bio, “the locomotives we are going to get is a bit modernized”. This is the rational kernel of the minister’s presentation.
However, as they say, the devil is always in the detail. Bio added further that “the Federal Government intended to disengage from the management of the railway sector”. What is the reason for that decision? Well, he answered that “the management of the railways system has not been very good (isn’t government responsible for putting a ‘not good’ management in place?) and has not been profitable (despite acknowledging the underfunding of the railways!)”. Yar’adua’s seven-point agenda also intends to revive the railways; therefore pursuit to that, the minister revealed that “a bill for the amendment of the Railway Act…will be forwarded to the National Assembly to facilitate the entry of private investors into the railway sector”.
To show the determination of the regime to pursue the route of ‘privatization’, Bio added that within 44 weeks, they plan to have in place a concessioning agreement. “We don’t want the Nigerian Railway to be run by government any longer because past experiences have shown that if you use the same management system, it will still collapse (REALLY?)”. So to prevent that, they hope that by June next year, a concessionaire “would have been in place to take over the management of the railway system”. The regime is in awe of its potential ‘concessionaire’ and “that is why all necessary feasibility studies will be carried out” on the economic viability of the Nigerian railways. Bio says they will do that because “NOBODY WILL WANT TO BUY A DEAD HORSE (my emphasis), as he described the Nigerian railways!
In the past few years, I have authored a number of pieces on the Nigerian railways. I have an abiding passion for the railways and always argued for railways development as a strategic asset for Nigeria’s modernization and development. Unfortunately, the Nigerian ruling class does not have the strategic sweep of vision, which can locate the system at the heart of our country’s march into the future. The ideas of concession and privatization of the railways have been part of the baggage of ‘reforms’ which the IMF/World Bank have sold to Nigeria. It is a baggage of madness really, because the Americans who sell privatization don’t have a meaningful railways culture; and when the British railways were privatized under Margaret Thatcher, they ended up worse than they were under state control. Private operators cut corners to lengthen profit margins and that has renewed calls for their re-nationalization.
In matters like railways development, we should be looking towards best practices in countries close to the Nigerian experience, not blindly following diktats from imperialist institutions! Take India for example; it also inherited a colonial railways system from the British, just like Nigeria. But who can talk of India and its spectacular growth, without mentioning the central place of its railways? The railways in India traverse the length and breadth of the country, and they total 63, 140 kilometres; the fourth largest network in the world. Annually, they carry over 6 billion passengers and freight of over 350 million tonnes per year, according to India’s Ministry of Railways. The system is run by the state-owned Indian Railways. India manufactures locomotives in several parts of the country and employs hundreds of thousands of people, in a railways economy which contributes greatly to the overall development of India. The same can be said of China as well as Russia. These are the examples which we should be borrowing from!
According to the plan which Minister of Transportation enumerated, the government is “already partnering with investors like the Dangote Group and OandO on the railway scheme”. The question is what are they planning to achieve? Bio answered the query: “it will pay them to invest in rail and locomotives….If Dangote today buys five locomotives, each will pull about 30 wagons and each wagon is equivalent to what a trailer carries, so if you multiply five by 30, you will get 150”. This is railways ‘thinking’ according to Nigeria’s ruling regime! Where on earth is strategic vision? No thought of the railways in national development, in terms of jobs; further opening up our country and linking our people together; passenger and freight movement and overall contribution of the railways in the construction of a modern nation? None of the above! What they have is an ill-thought-out idea of “concession” and the purchase of locomotives by controversial billionaires! No serious nation will construct its railways on the absurd platform presented last week. Nigeria deserves a modern railway system which works for its people; but on the evidence of Ibrahim Bio’s presentation last week, Yar’adua’s regime has turned our railways on the wrong track again! It cannot find success with the delusion of “concession” and privatization”. The Nigerian state must invest heavily to modernize and expand the railways and keep it in the state sector, as India, China and Russia do. This is the real way to do it.
A TEXT TO PONDER
“Sycophancy is thriving in Nigeria. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), has taken a full page to congratulate Sam Egwu, the Minister of Education, on his 55th birthday!!! (Page 5 of SATURDAY SUN). UNN of all universities!! Not even an Okija Uni or Madonna Uni, but UNN!”
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