Nigeria’s Rail Revolution: Of front-row seats and Infusions of Hope

I’m one of a handful of Nigerians who have — as I write this, at the beginning of 2020 — traveled on all of the new Standard Gauge Rail (SGR) lines that Nigeria is currently building and/or completing.

There’s the 327km Warri-Ajaokuta-Itakpe line, started in 1987 by then President Babangida

There’s the 168km Abuja-Kaduna line, conceived by President Obasanjo, started by President Jonathan in 2011, and completed and put to use by President Buhari in 2016

There’s the 157km Lagos-Ibadan line, conceived by President Obasanjo (as part of the Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project), and started by President Buhari in 2016 (financial close)/2017 (groundbreaking), and set for completion in 2020.

And then there’s the 44.7km Abuja Metro line, contract awarded by President Obasanjo in May 2007, construction started by President Yar’Adua in 2009, and completed and put to use by President Buhari in 2018.

I have seen them all, even the yet-to-be-completed ones.

And I am incredibly excited by how transformative all of these rail projects will be to Nigeria. Opening up towns and cities, lowering the cost of transport for freight, and spurring Nigerians to travel more and see more of their country. Not to talk of all the jobs that are being created and the value chains being sustained by these construction projects.

It’s exhilarating to have a front-row seat of sorts, taking part in inspection tours, seeing the projects unfold month after month, seeing the delays and frustrations, the hopes and dreams of people who cannot wait to see these projects completed and put to use.

I’m glad to work for a government that takes completing projects seriously. That thinks that every government owes it to the people to follow through on projects inherited from previous governments, and to see them through to the end, instead of abandoning them and obsessing with starting new ones for the sake of ego.

Three of the four projects listed above were started before the Buhari administration took office. 1987, 2009, 2011. The fourth one had been envisioned, but had not seen any progress until PMB assumed office. Nigeria negotiated funding from China in 2016, paid its “counterpart” share in full early in 2017, and broke ground on the project in March 2017 (VP Osinbajo performed this ceremony, on behalf of PMB):

Three years later the project is 85% completed, and will be fully operational by the end of 2020.

If there’s anything Nigerians need more than anything else, if you ask me, I’d say it’s ‘hope’. A sense of possibilities, a conviction that we are not doomed to be the country that cannot complete a single landmark rail project, that in spite of all our dysfunction we can surprise ourselves and the world and pull off the things required to set us firmly on the path to development.

Each completed high-profile project of this nature inspires the confidence to tackle the next one. The reward for success is the determination to replicate that success. ‘We have done it before and we can do it again’ is a powerful template for progress, I tell you.

This great piece of news came this morning, January 21, 2020, from the Minister of Transportation (who has been working exceedingly hard to implement the President’s vision for rail):

I couldn’t help putting it into context for those who might not be aware:

Here’s my Twitter narrative from the first time I saw and traveled on the Line, July 27, 2018, from Itakpe to Warri:

My second ride was on January 14, 2019, from Warri to Itakpe:

One useful thing to note about this line is that in October 2019 the Federal Government of Nigeria awarded the contract for the extension of the Itakpe-Warri Line to Abuja, via Baro Port, and with a spur to Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State:

What this means is that when this extension is completed, you will be able to travel by SGR from Warri in the Niger Delta to Abuja the Federal Capital Territory, and from Abuja to Kaduna, and eventually to Kano, when the Ibadan — Kano leg of the Lagos — Kano SGR line is finished.

Before you go, read my article: Rail will be a uniting force for Nigeria (Metro-UN, October 2019):