Although the approval of N1.1 billion by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) the other day, for two standard gauge locomotives, represents a positive step, the amount is minuscule given the need of the country and the level of work yet undone for railway transportation. While that investment is a laudable expression of appreciation of the need in railway system, there should be a comprehensive rejuvenation plan, which should form the basis for action. A disjointed piecemeal approach would not solve the problem of a collapsed rail system like Nigeria’s.
The contract for the work was awarded to Messrs CNR Darling Locomotives and Rolling Stock Limited and CCECC Nigeria Limited to be delivered in a period of 10 months. The scope of work includes the design and manufacture of two diesel electric locomotives with a capacity of 2,800 kilowatts for standard gauge tracks; training of 30 personnel for the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) on operation and maintenance of locomotives; commissioning and test-running in Nigeria, as well as one year maintenance and technical support with two residential technicians.
According to the Minister of Transport, Idris Umar, the two locomotives are to be used for mass transport services on the Abuja-Kaduna standard rail line, which is due to be completed by the end of this year. He said government was fully committed to the revival of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and is working assiduously to see to the completion of the Abuja-Kaduna rail line.
Umar added that more of such locomotives would be ordered in 2015 and beyond. Nigerians have heard these promises several times in the past without concrete action, and the question is: What guarantee is there that the latest promises would not end up as nothing other than promises? However, the Federal Government must be commended for realizing, though, belatedly, that the country’s railway system needs modernization. The old single gauge has been phased out in many countries.
Consequently, the move to change from the single gauge to the standard gauge is welcome and strategic in many ways. Not only would it facilitate mass transportation and haulage of goods and services, it serves well also in the movement of military hardware. The haulage of millions of tonnes of cargo by road has subjected the roads network to much pressure. A functional standard railway system would remove pressure on the roads and make movement easier and cheaper just as a modern railway system will boost the economy.
Unfortunately, since 2000, government has come up with one proposal or the other aimed at revamping the railway without much result. During the Obasanjo administration, for instance, government announced the approval of a concessionary programme to revitalise the railway using the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangement. But up till now, the result of that arrangement is in its absence.
Under the PPP scheme, government was to transfer the operation of the railway to private operators, even when the extant legal framework that shuts out private participation is still in force and has not been repealed. The legal hindrance has to be removed first before the private sector could be involved. As a matter of fact, critical steps should be taken in order to realise the object of the latest proposal.
One of them is the repeal of the subsisting NRC Act of 1955, which is moribund but still confers absolute monopoly right on the federal government and forbids private sector participation in railway service delivery in the country. Some credible investors like the Lagos State Government and the O’dua Investment Company had shown interest in rail transport but were frustrated by the extant law.
So what is the legal framework within which the latest efforts will be executed? The time has come for the Railway Act to be abrogated to make way for liberalization with a conducive environment created before the proposed modernisation could be effected on the railway.
Nigeria is too big to have one monopoly managing the railway system. That arrangement has thwarted not only the rails but also the road infrastructure in the country. It would be foolhardy to continue with a system that has failed before and the Federal Government should do everything to revive the rail system in the national interest.
