₦airaland Forum

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The Abia State governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu inspected projects in the city of Aba yesterday, Friday the 29th of July, 2020. Pictures of the inspection tour were made available by the chief press secretary of the governor Onyebuchi Ememanka.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Buchiememanka1/status/1288482675498659841

The famous brothers.

Professor Chike Edozien.

Professor Emmanuel Edozien (RIP)

And Dr John Edozien.

Akanbiedu:
Naptu2

when I grow up, I want to be like you.

Thank you.

AK481:
Sir, any tangible reasons why the south east don’t have ?

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.

Photos

Governor Kaduna @GovKaduna

Malam Nasir @elrufai is hosting a review meeting with security agencies on the situation in southern Kaduna. The army, police and other security agencies are presenting situation reports, analyses and recommendations

Participants include Major-General CC Okonkwo, commander- Operation Safe Haven, Brig. Gen OS Aboi, commander, 1 Division Garrison, AVM MI Mukhtar, AI Koya of DSS, Brig-Gen EE Eji of the DIA, DCP Onah A. Sunny and ACP Danladi Ibrahim, area commander-Kafanchan

https://mobile.twitter.com/GovKaduna/status/1288069004167348225

Omooba77:
The President of Federal Republic of Nigeria General (Rtd) Mohammed Buhari recently approved some stations named after prominent Nigerians, but OBJ's name was not there.

Why is No Train Station named after Fmr President Obasanjo?

Some newspapers raised that question simply because they wanted to be mischievous and gain attention in order to sell papers and get clicks.


The truth of the matter is that:


1) It is too early to conclude that no train station will be named after OBJ because they have not yet given names to many of the train stations that will be built.


2) Secondly, OBJ is not the only person that did not have a train station named after him in this first round. No train station was named after Ernest Shonekan, JEA Wey, Sir Aderemi Adesoji, Adeyinka Adebayo and so on and so forth. Besides, there are very many things all over the country that are named after OBJ.

Topmaike007:
not a Barca fan you're joking

You are very funny. How would you know what tram I support better than me?

Anyway, I have always only supported 3 sets of teams, the Nigerian national teams, Stationery Stores and another set that I'm going to keep to myself.

I am not a supporter of any European team.

Topmaike007:
I only view it to know who create thread for training session only not to get Dissapointed because my guess was right

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

And what would knowing who created the thread do for you? What do you want to do with that information??

Anyway, other people are enjoying the thread but you've already told us why you clicked on the thread, you have beef with Barca fans. (I'm not even a Barca fan ).

Topmaike007:
Barca fans with hype again even for common training

Topmaike007:
@naptu2 now is this news abeg your player score for training you open thread for it....

Great, so why did you click on the thread? Why didn't you just skip it, since it's not news to you?

CioAngels:
The first announcement, Itakpe Warri was after Good luck Jonathan, now, why from nowhere Jonathan is removed for Adamu? Who is Adamu that is better than Jonathan?.Waiting.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha


My God!


The Agbor station was named after Goodluck Jonathan! The Agbor station is on the Warri-Itakpe line. You can clearly see Goodluck Jonathan's name on the list.


The Itakpe station was named after Adamu Atta. Adamu Atta is from the famous Atta Royal Family and he was governor of Kwara State from 1979-1983.

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FC Barcelona Femeni will face Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Women's Champions League next month.

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Oshoala Impresses, Scores 2 Goals In Barcelona's First Training Match Since Lockdown.

Asisat Oshoala scored 2 goals, missed an amazing chance and had a shot blocked in FC Barcelona Femeni's first major training session in 4 months.

The Barcelona team was divided into 2, with one team wearing the away jersey (yellow) and the other team wearing the home jersey (red and blue). Oshoala gave victory to the away team with 2 impressive goals.

Barcelona are preparing for the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League next month and although the players began individual training at their training camp last week, this was their first training match in 4 months.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQxZzAEvG7U

AK481:
none is located in alaigbo.

Amudeneogu:
We in the south-east have we sen ourselves,
1. only chief Alex Ekwueme's name was mentioned
2. out of all th stations none from the south-east that means no functional railway station from the south-east. it is a pity.

These are on the Western (Lagos to Kano) and Central (Warri to Abuja) lines. None of the stations can be in Igbo Land. The lines that have stations in Igbo Land are the Eastern (Port Harcourt to Maiduguri) and Southern (Lagos to Calabar) lines.

Aguogba:
your mumu no get part 2. Apart from maybe in North Korea, where in the world are train stations named after people? So, I want to drop in Oshogbo, and you want me to remember to drop at one Ikugbayin mumusenwon station. Why must you guys always defend rubbish from clueless leaders. Well, there was a country!.

At bold:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr._Plaza_(Toledo)