Nigerians are full of expectations following the swearing in of Sen. Said Ahmed Akali as the new Minister of Transportation.
The Ministry under his predecessor, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, witnessed high level of development and novel projects such as the deep blue project to fight piracy on the nation’s coastal waters and the Gulf of Guinea (GoG), connecting the Lagos seaports by rail to ease the transportation bottlenecks and the electronic Call-up system for tankers and e-ticketing of rail passengers.
Despite these bold achievements, the country is yet to witness seamless movement of goods and services from one part of the country to the other by road, rail, or sea.
Some of the challenges militating against this achievement include: poor road maintenance, outdated rail systems, weak coaches, and congested ports. Others include inconsistent regulations, security concerns, lack of policy reforms, and poor public-private partnerships.
To surmount these challenges, there must be a deliberate effort to make Nigeria’s transportation sector more secured, safer; modernize the rail system; reactivate mass transit services and develop vehicles powered by solar or Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
With the creation of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, the Ministry of Transportation is left with land transportation and Railway as the only agency within its control as Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Shippers Council, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) may be inherited by the new Ministry.
The first urgent challenge before the Minister is an office and staff. Recall that on Monday after the ministers were inaugurated, staff of the Ministry of Transportation received the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola reported to duty at the Ministry of Transport Headquarters, Abuja and were received by the Ministry staff.
On Tuesday, the 22nd of August, 2023, the Minister of Transportation, Sen. Said Ahmed Akali resumed work at the same ministry (Transportation) and was received by same staff.
The Permanent Secretary, Dr. Magdalene Ajani at both meetings stated that the process of carving out the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry from the Ministry of Transportation was ongoing.
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy occupied the office that belongs to the Minister of Transportation, while the office used by the Minister of State for Transportation was left for the Minister of Transportation.
It was further learnt that the Bukar Dipcharima House occupied by the Ministry of Transportation was donated to the ministry by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), an Agency that now falls under the purview of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.
Aside the office space, developing a Transportation Road map by first obtaining an updated data on the number of vehicles that ply Nigerian highways as well as passengers that use various means of transportation is the next task the minister must tackle headlong for transport planning and policy formulation.
As at today, the movement of people and goods is majorly through road transportation. While the roads are overused and wrongly used, the waterways are not being utilized. In addition, pipelines are no longer used and petroleum product are now moved through the already congested roads. The railway system which is the second means of mass movement of goods and services is yet make any significant contributions to the nation’s transport system due to its own challenges.
The last data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2017 showed that there were about 11.8 million licensed cars on Nigeria’s roads as at Q4 2018, compared to 11.6 million in the corresponding period of 2017. The report also predicted a two percent increase on the figure per month. In order words, about 18 million vehicles ply Nigerian roads in 2023.
The Minister is expected to create synergy with the Minster of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi towards the interconnectivity of highways and inter-state roads for seamless movement of goods and services across the country.
Another area of grave concern is the railway system. The completion of the eastern and western railway lines, kicked-off by the Muhammadu Buhari administration is an area the minister must handle with all seriousness.
The projects include: The 1315km second phase of Lagos-Ibadan rail which will connect Lagos to Abuja and then Kano via Minna and Kaduna. It is expected that the rail line will enable the movement of goods and passengers directly from the Apapa port to the Inland Container Depot (ICD) located in Ibadan. The idea of the connection of the ports to the standard gauge rail was to introduce an intermodal means of cargo clearance at the nation’s ports.
Also seeking attention is the Kaduna-Kano Standard Gauge Rail Line which will complete the circle of transportation of goods from Lagos to Kano via railway. This is a major project that will reduce congestions on the road and road the cost of transportation of goods and ultimately cost of production especially with the removal of subsidy.
The Port-Harcourt to Maiduguri rail line rehabilitation project covering 1443 kilometres, under construction at a contract value of $3.2 billion as well as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal railway project at a contract value of $2.3 billion covering 650 kilometres is another project the minister must pay close attention to. The Kano – Maradi may suffer some setbacks due to the recent coup in Nigeria and the embargo placed on the military junta in Niger by ECOWAS.
As of the second quarter of 2021, the overall statistics of railway transport saw a sharp rise across all indices owing to renewed interest and incentives in the sector. According to the NBS, the number of passengers rose by 80 percent to 565,385 from 108,238. The volume of Goods/Cargos (Tons) also rose monumentally by 80 percent in quarter 2 2021 from 42,782 to 8,691 in 2020. Revenue Generated from passengers rose from just N320 million recorded in quarter 2 2020 to N1.083 billion recorded in the same quarter in 2021. The Revenue Generated from Goods/Cargos increased in quarter 2 2021 from 71,555,762.00 to 66,293,398 relative to the previous year (Q2).
However, with the recent attacks on railway tracks, coaches, kidnap of passengers at railway stations, transportation by rail became unpopular and even more risky than plying the roads.
It is also believed that adequate attentions was not paid to securing and monitoring the rail tracks electronically, getting the right technology to monitor the tracks as well as engaging the host community on track surveillance.
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) believes that “The decline experienced in terms of passenger and freight movements over the decades was as a result of failed investments for both the locomotive and rolling stocks including security challenges.
“The strategic railway plan, which includes the rehabilitation of all the existing narrow gauge rail lines, construction of new standard gauge line and their operations and maintenance in the country. This would require potential huge resources much of which are envisioned to be resourced through private sector investment, to give the Nigerian people a modern railway system comparable globally. The sole aim of the strategic vision is to connect all the 36 States and the Abuja FCT and to provide rail links to the nation’s airports and river port terminals thereby reducing pressure on Nigeria’s road network which at the moment handles more than 80% of passenger and cargo traffics.”
It is believed that the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s railway system will thrive majorly on a sustainable business model, the right technology and innovation and an adaptive mode of operation that is better suited to the customers’ needs.
For railway system to be commercially viable, government must have the courage to operate it commercially, and protect the system from those who would use its resources for personal or political gain.
ICRC further observed that “Too often the railway’s staffing is padded with political patronage jobs, rates are held below costs to win votes, customers can only access the railway through intermediaries that skim off revenue, or funds are outright stolen.
“Railway management must be incentivized to build traffic, operate efficiently, strive for profitability, and keep the railway’s assets in sound condition. This requires the government to implement a governance framework that creates balanced incentives to achieve the desired outcomes.”
However, to attract the needed patronage, the railways must position itself as the reliable, low cost service providers on key transport arteries and interact seamlessly with road carriers to deliver door-to-door service to the customer.
The swift completion of the inland dry ports in Isiala Ngwa, Abia State with 50,000 TEUs capacity, Erunmu, Ibadan- Oyo State with 50,000 TEUs capacity, Heipang, Jos – Plateau State with 20,000 TEUs capacity and Jauri, Maiduguri- Borno State with 10,000 TEUs capacity is one of the most important task Sen. Said Ahmed Akali must handle.
