manny4life:


No what I'm saying is that SE has a port of no commercial features as compared to "standard" commercial port. There are features of a port that's really lacking for Onitsha, hence the reason why it's no commercial standard port. As for the three things you listed, the last two out of the three you listed are arguably negligible in terms of it's economic benefit where as the "viability" is not questionable.


While I do not ignore, however, there are economic factors that determine success of a business/capital infrastructure. States who do not have the volume of travelers can't request for such because it doesn't make any financial sense, however, given the right indicators, one can discern that it's appropriate almost all states (if everything being equal) will definitely have a standard "domestic" airport, not International.

I'm not ignoring that there are two other ports, what I've stated here, times without number is that, there's a poor promotional management issue with them that makes it look nonviable where as in its true sense, it's potentials are yet to be untapped.

Why is the viability not questionable? What figures or studies do you have that point to that viability? Do you have any facts that point to the fact that a majority of goods that pass through Lagos end up in the SE?

We are discussing Nigeria here; is every man and his dog not requesting for a new state even though most states are not viable? Why is it appropriate for almost all states to have a standard domestic airport? First, everything is never equal. Second, would you have the same view if there were 60 states? There is no rule that states that all states must have equal infrastructure.

Please elucidate on the poor promotional management. As stated earlier, nothing stops importers from using the two ports in the East. If a majority of goods end up in the SE, importers would use the ports in the East.

This is a welcome development, long overdue. Rail between Lagos & Calabar will pass thru other Southern states & will reduce traveling time.
People will be spared the harrowing experience of traveling by road.
Traveling will be safer
Wear & tear of roads will reduce
Above all, it will bring Southern governors & the people closer
There will be more development. All the towns where the rail will pass thru will develop fast

I hope Ibaka deep seaport will be completed and commissioned before this rail line so that goods will be moving from the port to Lagos and other parts of Nigeria.

What's all this talk about rail from lagos to calabar, as far as I'm concerned its all crap! What the govt should do is to get ibaka seaport up and running as soon as possible. I would rather put money on a rail running from the north through the east down to ibaka for exports and imports(we seem to love this one) rather than this silly lagos to calabar rail- that's what the british did, they were not stupid, it just made sense. ibaka is a natural seaport that requires absolutely no dredging-it is located at the mouth of the estuary, in fact the water depth is actually getting deeper as time goes . The location of the calabar seaport is what is making it a viable seaport-it is located on the sand depositional side of the calabar channel thereby making dredging a necessity on a regular basis. This does not make it economical in any sense. As far as I'm concerned calabar is out of the picture and that's why it has not performed all this while. There was a time it was dredge during OBJ's time and some goods came but soon after it was filled with sand and the ships avoided it.common sense right?as for the PH port I'm not too sure of what's the issue there,could it have the same issue as the calabar port, piracy? I truly don't know. So guys this proposed does not make sense to me, the govt should complete the current dualization of the road, get ibaka up and running, extend the north south railway Line to ibaka, change the economic focus from imports to exports and see whether the Nigerian economy won't come alive.

I PRAY FOR IT SUCCESS

If such a rail line were constructed how will it pass through ALL 17 states what business does such a line have in Oshun or Oyo state e.g.

Actually the British built rail lines to facilitate exports Through seaports all over the Empire not to help the colonies' economies.India is one exception where cross country lines were built.
Rail lines convey huge volumes of heavy goods like coal ,cement,wood and steel more efficiently and cheaply and eases the burden on roads.It facilitates commerce across the regions and this is a commendable initiative.
In addition rail lines also convey human traffic in larger numbers and more efficiently than any other. That is certainly the case in India,Germany ,UK and many others. If the tracks are dedicated then in the future they can be used for High speed trains and People can travel from Lagos to Benin in One hour.

certainly a good idea in my view Local train line may also be constructed e.g . Lagos to Akure or Enugu to Ikot Ekpene but shoul be separate projects

The reason people will continue to prefer Lagos is that it is cheaper.Of the 500 or so Kilometres of our coastline most is mangrove creek or poorly accessible to major ships .Lagos is the most shipping friendly harbour naturally. Others are possible but only with massive and expensive engineering works. Imports take place at Onne but this is restricted to goods consumed in the Free gas Zone. I hear they import water and meat there

However it is a mistake to believe that rail lines convey only imported goods.

They convey human traffic and can be number one for that.
Also if the huge manufacturing potential in SE is realised ,goods will still need to be transported.People need to travel and see more things.
A train moving at more than 100km/h can pull a convoy of 100 containers in series which is very efficient compared to what we have.Now these containers may have nothing to do with imports but could be Onions tomatoes etc.

Anyone who has ever imported from Europe knows prices increase along the coast from Accra to Lome to Cotonou to Lagos.I guess diesel is a factor.Going further east will cost more but might be worth it particularly for the manufacturing sector. I do not see the failure to develop a port in the SE as evidence of Neglect though there may be other examples of Neglect eg failure to build an international airport or even cargo airport. If there is a case for dredging and ship berthing every community along the Niger/Benue has such a claim all the way to Sokoto.

Seaports are business and dredged ports are expensive. What is not usually stated is dredging requires ongoing maintenance and even at that not ALL ships can berth or would be willing to make such trips because the fuel and insurance costs are higher as is the risk of piracy and related activity in inland waters which are not under International law.

The Lagos sea port issue is quite simple government makes a lot of money for minimal investment. No dredging or other engineering costs etc it is a very ship friendly coastline.Even basic maintenance the government fails to do in Lagos and now have concessioned it at a giveaway.The solution to SE shipping needs has to be a PPP arrangement. Nigerian government can never run it profitably and whatever they do will eventually turn out to be inadequte in terms of demand.

This is an interesting link on Financing railways
http://www.railway-technical.com/finance.shtml

Pls someone tell them to stop!it would not benefit the south not to talk about nigeria It would just end up congesting more the already conjested lagos port
Apart from that why build a railway from one seaport 2 another.it doesn't make sense. Study all the railway lines in other countries. It runs from inland to the sea! Pls tell them to stop this madness,get the roads to standard.high speed trains can be used for shorter but very busy routes.get ibaka seaport done so it can serve as the eastern gateway and decongest lagos port
By the way how do they intend to run the tracks thru the 17 states. Some states will definitely be excluded.

BabaTony: Pls someone tell them to stop! It would just end up congesting more the already conjested lagos port
Apart from that why build a railway from one seaport 2 another.it doesn't make sense. Study all the railway lines in other countries. It runs from inland to the sea! Pls tell them to stop this madness,get the roads to standard.high speed trains can be used for shorter but very busy routes.get ibaka seaport done so it can serve as the eastern gateway and decongest lagos port

Railway lines may or may not have anything to do with ports and the transportation of goods.Rail lines could be for human traffic only or for Non-imported goods e.g cement from Ogun state or even chicken. In the SS right now MOST caterers buy chicken from Ibadan so building of rail lines is not just about importation.Imported goods may not feature.Another good thing about rail lines is you can transport goods at night and people by day which will be quite useful in Nigeria
What is notable is this is a state government Dream/vision(cannot call it a plan) if they decide to do it with State government money that is their prerogative and different states can opt in or out nothing to do with FG from funding perspective

@aribasala0,I know clearly the functions of railways. We are talking about the nigerian experience here,there was a time in this country we had nkalagu cement in old anambra state, ashaka cement in the north, calabar cement company(calcemco),why are they not functioning any longer? God has blessed this country with solid minerals in every part. I don't see why the SE or SE should get cement from Ogun state or chicken from Ibadan (meanwhile I don't believe the SS gets chicken from there). We should get our economy right and build infrastructure to make it optimal use of such resources.we don't want redundant infrastructure.

BabaTony: @aribasala0,I know clearly the functions of railways. We are talking about the nigerian experience here,there was a time in this country we had nkalagu cement in old anambra state, ashaka cement in the north, calabar cement company(calcemco),why are they not functioning any longer? God has blessed this country with solid minerals in every part. I don't see why the SE or SE should get cement from Ogun state or chicken from Ibadan (meanwhile I don't believe the SS gets chicken from there). We should get our economy right and build infrastructure to make it optimal use of such resources.we don't want redundant infrastructure.

OK