₦airaland Forum

Urban9aira:
apparently you only read news that makes it to Nairaland front page....Update yourself nicca

dfrost:


When I got a message that NAFDAC will certify the vaccine, I was perplexed, bewildered, shocked and surprised. naptu2, is it possible that NADFAC will certify the vaccine or just to add NAFDAC number?

od501:
Baba vaccine plenty, they just disqualified Nigeria in one

BreconHills:
Thanks for this Naptu. Sense is not common. Thought you might like this classical version of Redemption song by the amazing Kanneh- Mason family


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_LmRcr8Mm4

Kobicove:
This is a bloody lie.

I was in Apapa last week Friday and the traffic was Stoll as terrible as ever!

Alhamdulillah! It gladdens my heart to announce the release of the abducted students of GGSS Jangebe from captivity. This follows the scaling of several hurdles laid against our efforts. I enjoin all well-meaning Nigerians to rejoice with us as our daughters are now safe.

Ishilove:
Mai... This princely governor from a royal home has married into political royalty.

Gumsu is so beautiful. I wonder what joy they derive in polygamy

asha80:
owerri isn't on the part of the existing ph to maiduguri line..so an branch off is going to owerri? Where would the branch off take off from along the original route? Since that lagos to calabar route has a branch of from benin to terminates at onitsha and now the branch off from ph maiduguri route has a branch off that stops at owerri i honestly think it makes sense to join onitsha to owerri and later join to aba

“The Port Harcourt to Maiduguri railway will have new branch lines; from Port Harcourt to Bonny and from Port Harcourt to Owerri. There is another connecting to Kafanchan. There is a branch line from Gombe or before Maiduguri to Damaturu and Gashua. That’s what has been approved,’’ the Minister added.

onuman:
But common economic calculations show that freight rail lines should have been built first on the Lagos-Benin-Onitsha route that accounts for more goods haulage than any other route in Nigeria. The profits generated from the Lagos-Benin-Onitsha freight rail lines go to sponsor new freight and passenger rail lines in other parts of the country. That’s how it’s done in other countries.

So why is the Lagos-Benin-Onitsha rail lines not in the cards of the Transport Ministry?

This reminds one of how NITEL died after Digital Telephone exchanges were first built in some tiny towns northern Nigeria, while the businesses cities in the East were left to struggle with Analog telephone exchanges.

naptu2:
I'm going to answer all the questions in one post.

Here is the deal.

1) Historically there are 2 rail lines that cut across Nigeria. These lines were built by the colonialists and they are the Western Line, which runs from Lagos to Kano and the Eastern Line which runs from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.Both lines meet at Kaduna.

The Western Line runs through places like Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Oshogbo, Minna, Kaduna and Kano. It was built to carry goods like (Alhassan Dantata's) groundnuts, meat, hides and skin, etc. to the port in Lagos.

The Eastern Line runs through places like Port Harcourt, Aba, Enugu, Makurdi and Maiduguri. It was initially built to carry coal from Enugu to the port at Port Harcourt.

More recently, in the 1980s, a Central Line was started. It was to run from Itakpe to Warri. This is because Nigeria had planned to become a major producer of steel and so the railway line was designed to take iron ore from the iron mines at Itakpe to the steel plant at Ajaokuta and then to take steel to the port at Warri. The line was started by the Babangida Administration in 1987, but it was never finished.


The Eastern and Western lines are narrow gauge lines. This means that trains cannot move very quickly on them. That's why we have slow trains. I read an account in a colonial officer's book about how another colonial officer made a presentation to Lord Lugard that Nigeria needed a standard gauge rail line because the narrow gauge was too slow and groundnut was being piled up in pyramids in Kano because the trains could not move them to the port in Lagos quickly enough.

The Central Line was built in the 1980s and it was the only standard gauge line in Nigeria for a long time.

The first map below shows the old narrow gauge Eastern and Western lines and the uncompleted Central Line.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12019220_nigeriarailwaymap_svg_pngc2ad80783a6f9fc203733f315b3825ed


Railway Modernisation Programme

The idea of modernising Nigeria's railway system began during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo.

Abuja Metro

Nigeria was bidding to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games and we were leading in the bid race. It seemed certain that Abuja would host the competition. Glasgow was our closest competitor. However, something happened that basically destroyed our bid.

An inspection team came to inspect the facilities that would be used for the games. We had easily passed all previous inspections because we had recently hosted the All Africa Games and the facilities were relatively new, but this team did not come to inspect our sports facilities.

The team, which was led by a woman, came to inspect our hotels and transport facilities. The team was shocked that Abuja did not have any rail or metro system. If you go to Wikipedia and search for any major stadium like Old Trafford or Yankee Stadium, you'd see the nearest train station listed in the article. That's because a metro system is the best way to move a large number of fans to and from the stadium easily. Abuja did not have that. That was the turning point and we eventually lost the bid to Glasgow.


President Obasanjo subsequently decided that a metro system must be built for Abuja. This was toward the end of his tenure and so it was not built while he was in office.


Lagos-Calabar Rail Line

For many decades people have criticised the colonialists for the way that they built the rail lines in Nigeria. The critics say that the colonialists were only interested in exploiting Nigeria's resources, that's why they built the rail lines in a north-south fashion. The lines were built to take groundnuts, coal, cocoa and other raw materials to the ports for exports. They were not built to solve the transportation needs of Nigerians and that's why the Eastern and Western lines do not meet anywhere in the south. They only meet in Kaduna. Therefore, a person that wants to go from Enugu to Lagos by rail would need to go to Kaduna first before getting to Lagos.

I have often wondered why Nigerians did not build an East-West line after the colonialists left. President Obasanjo (or his advisers) must have also had that thought and so they included a Lagos-Calabar rail line in their modernisation plan.

Eastern and Western standard gauge lines

The plan also included the construction of an Eastern and a Western standard gauge line. There was also a plan for a high speed rail line to connect Lagos and Abuja.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12019222_eh92k0wwaatz8c_jpeg84afae16d4e372984a694153b190f717

Construction

All these plans were only on paper when President Obasanjo left office. Although his government signed an agreement with the Chinese, nothing was done on the ground.

The Goodluck Jonathan Administration started the construction of the Abuja-Kaduna Rail Line (part of the Western Line) and the Abuja Metro System in 2011. The projects were finished in 2016 and commissioned by President Buhari.

Continuation

The Buhari Administration stated that it would complete the projects that it inherited before beginning new projects. The rail projects that it inherited are the Western Line (Abuja-Kaduna started by the Jonathan Administration) and the Central Line (Warri-Itakpe started by the Babangida Administration).

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12019221_2020072907_30_17_jpeg5e32039f91150c47e38b735dae81795b

The administration continued working on the Western Line by building the Lagos-Ibadan phase of the line. It had been said during the Obasanjo Administration, that Nigeria does not have the money to build all the lines at once and so they would be built in phases.

The administration also continued the work on the Central Line by actually connecting Warri to Itakpe. The line had previously been abandoned in the 1980s without getting to any of those two cities.

Complaints

The work on the Lagos-Ibadan and Warri-Itakpr lines led to a lot of complaints. People in Kano complained that they had been abandoned and that the government was only building railway lines in the south, despite the fact that they gave the government the highest number of votes. However, I heard last week that work is about to begin on the Kano-Kaduna section of the Western Line.

People in the North-East and South-East have also complained that they've been abandoned because work is only happening on the Central and Western lines. The minister of transport, Rotimi Amaechi has, in response, repeatedly promised that discussions are ongoing with the Chinese about the Eastern Line. He said that there are a few problems with getting the loan/funding for the line and also with the procurement process, but he has promised that the line would be built.

Modifications

President Buhari had also made some modifications to the projects. The Warri-Itakpe Line will now be connected to Abuja and it will become the Warri-Abuja Line. The Eastern and Western standard gauge lines will also be connected to Abuja. He has also ordered that every state capital should be connected to a rail line and that all the rail lines should terminate at a sea port.


Conclusion

In conclusion, although some people are wondering why train stations were not named after certain Nigerians, the fact is that there are still many train stations that will be built. Some people are wondering why the Eastern Line has not been built yet and the answer is that the government wants to finish building the lines that it inherited before starting new projects.

I think that the Lagos-Calabar Line will be the last to be completed because the other 3 lines are being built on already existing rail corridors, while a new corridor/right of way would have to be cleared before the Lagos-Calabar Line can be built.

Lagos-Ibadan Rail Project Extend To Apapa To Expedite Movement Of Goods From The Seaports By Rail

by Tola Ojobo - July 24, 2018

Lagos – The contractor handling the new Lagos-Ibadan railway project, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, has been directed to extend its work from Ebute Meta to Apapa as part of measures to facilitate the movement of goods from the Lagos seaports to other parts of the country by rail.

Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, gave the directive in Lagos on Monday and also ordered the demolition of the Apapa Railway Station to pave the way for its expansion as well as accommodate the activities at the Apapa seaport.

Although the extension is in the second phase of the standard gauge railway project, the government said the decision to bring it forward was informed by the need to address the near stagnation of import and export business due to the gridlock on roads leading to Apapa and the Lagos seaports.

Amaechi spoke with journalists during the inspection of the Apapa station after a meeting of the Project Steering Committee held at the CCECC yard.

“We have come to inspect what the Apapa station looks like. The station will be moved backward to the centre of the road since all the property around here belongs to the NRC,” Amaechi said.

The minister, who insisted that the December deadline for the completion of the railway project was feasible, however, declared that it was not mandatory for the contractor to deliver the Apapa Port extension, classified as the phase two.

He stated, “The task we have given the contractor now is broken into two phases; the first phase is from Ebute Meta to Ibadan. We believe they should be able to complete that.

“We also believe that they should be able to complete Apapa to the seaport; but even if they are not able to complete it, we can go ahead and begin commercial activities from Ebute Meta to Ibadan, which is the original contract. It is this government that said all rail lines must terminate at seaports.”

erico2k2:
There was a reason I asked you if you have seen a freight train B4, now that we are on the same page, where do you expect these trains to offload? on a passenger platform or at a port?(Bonded terminal) PH port has loader and offloads cranes, Onne Port has load and offload cranes and so will be the new Bonny port. So my Argument is simple All ports should be linked by rail be it Seaport or Airport. This is the same in Europe and America.
My Point still stands and you can take it to the bank,there will be more cargo coming from Lagos via the west lines ie Lagos to PH than PH to Maiduguri

erico2k2:
Good morning
as per your number 3 I think you are missing the point
I don't think you have seen a freight train b4 so you got me c confused, the tracks has nothing to do with it rather its the carriages they both moves on the same track same platform nothing differed,I asked again have you seen a proper c container trailer in Nigeria most of the time? Freight trains cant carry people with no seats. This was why Im saying. freight trains are c container trains so where do you want container loading facilities to be located if not at the ports. Freight trains are flatbeds with nudges at the 4 edges to hold containers or they c some in wagons like tippers.

erico2k2:
Here is what he said back then
https://www.pulse.ng/news/chibuike-amaechi-i-never-knew-nigerian-railways-were-functioning-says-minister-of/qv5bf56
Well, regards trains at the moment what we seem to have is passenger trains, port to port trains do not join with passenger trains as container trains are special trains and different. I don't know if you have seen a proper container lory that shifts and adjusts itself to 20ft or 40ft containers, that's how fright trains are.Going back to trains at PH, he abandoned the Monorail project after wasting Billions which is pathetic.I still think there is more Economic value for Lagos port linked to Onne port. The decongestion on the Lagos port if this is don would be world-class.
PS.This Electronic Truck call up at the apapa port they are talking about what is that all about, how does it work anyone knows?

seankafor:
Good for her and her family..

What possible impact will her been in this position help Nigeria as a country?

BlowYourMind:
Is the organization so less of others or the woman being black isn't any funfair, just only few pressmen and just two staff members waiting for a whole world trade organization director.

Welcome to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala @NOIweala on her first day as WTO Director-General!   She makes history as the first woman and first African to take up this post.