The Metaphor Called Abuja-Kaduna Train -By Olusegun Adeniyi

In May 2017, my first daughter had just completed her West African School Certificate Examination and was home when I got a message that her siblings were at the National Children’s Park and Zoo on excursion from their school. She decided to accompany me to see them. As we drove into the park, I said, “I am sure you don’t even know a place like this exists in Abuja”, thinking she had never visited the park before. “I have been here several times. Mummy used to bring us here when you were working at the Villa. But the place was better than this then” she said. After a few seconds, she then asked, “Daddy, why is it that things in Nigeria were usually better in the past?”

She was just 17 at the time and I had no answer to her question that speaks to how things consistently regress in our country. Take for example the Abuja-Kaduna train. I first experienced the train ride two years ago and was impressed that everything worked perfectly. The trip took exactly two hours. The convenience was neat and nearly all the facilities were in good condition. As I continued to travel the route, I noticed a steady decline in both operations and facilities. Clocks stopped working, breakdowns occurred en route, cockroaches appeared, seats were torn and racketeering and touting of tickets became obvious. My experience last Thursday has compelled this intervention.

Billed to attend the board meeting of the Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship (KIF) in Kaduna that morning, I arrived at the station by 5.55am for the 7.00am train and joined others on the queue waiting for the officials who only began selling tickets at 6.10am. Meanwhile, it was drizzling and that led to a rush. While contemplating whether it was worth the trouble, a man who recognized me told me to leave the queue. He said someone would bring him tickets and he would give me one. Since I had promised to secure a ticket for Kadaria Ahmed, I told him I needed two. The man obliged and gave me the two tickets, free of charge.

Soon, boarding was announced. At this point, many were still on the queue trying to buy tickets. Pandemonium ensued. We eventually left them behind at the station. During the journey, I made mental notes. One, the majority of passengers in the Business Class compartment did not queue for tickets (which meant they secured them through ‘other way’) and two, the journey that took exactly two hours on my first experience was now two hours, 25 minutes. But that is just the beginning of the story.

Having been booked on the 2pm train back (or so we were told), the moment our meeting ended about 12.40pm, I decided to head straight to the train station. But Governor Nasir el Rufai, whose conference room we used for our meeting, invited members for lunch. In requesting that I wait, he said we needed only 20 minutes to get to the train station where our tickets would be ready. I replied that I don’t take chances when travelling within the country. My aburo, J.J Omojuwa decided to join me.

We arrived at the train station early enough but because it was raining, there was confusion everywhere. To compound matters, tickets were being sold in only one small cubicle. That led to hundreds of people pushing and shoving in their attempt to secure tickets. Omojuwa and I thought we would be spared the ordeal. We were wrong. The Kaduna government official could not get our tickets though he ran from one place to another. And for those who did secure the elusive tickets, it was another battle accessing the platform. Policemen, who had created their own melee by the entrance, beat back desperate passengers. When it was almost 2pm and we saw that the train had roared to life, we joined the madness. In the process, Omojuwa and one of the policemen nearly resorted to fisticuff. Eventually we fought our way to the platform even though we had no tickets. By then the train was about to move. Then we heard a woman shouting, “Where are the two men from the Government House?”

We rushed to her thinking she would give us tickets. She simply said, “follow me” and took us inside the first coach where she found seats for us in a rather dramatic fashion that is a story on its own. Once we sat down, the ‘action woman’ bade us goodbye and alighted. Then the train moved. So, we travelled back to Abuja without tickets! Those that were left behind at the Kaduna train station far outnumbered those who made the journey to Abuja. Ironically, when I went through the numerous coaches, several of them were nearly empty.

My observations. One, we like to complicate simple things in Nigeria. In the disorder created by inept management of the train, corruption is bound to thrive. Two, the best way to eliminate racketeering is for people to buy their tickets online. We have chosen a primitive method that is not working, cannot work and is open to abuse. Three, when shall we do something about our maintenance culture? Even a simple thing like the clock on the train doesn’t work and nobody pays attention. Four, the fare is ridiculous. It is being heavily subsidized. This is a $876 million project partly funded with a $500 million loan from the Exim Bank of China. The way we are going, we will soon run the train aground while still saddled with the loans.

I wrote the foregoing on 15th August upon my return to Abuja with the intention of publishing it in my column the next Thursday. As it so ever happens in Nigeria where we experience one day, one drama, other more important issues cropped up and I discarded this draft. When on Tuesday the Presidential Election Tribunal decided to deliver its verdict yesterday, I felt another sense of De Javu. But after reading a story published Saturday by Blueprint newspaper, I believe election matters can wait (In any case, can someone please wake me up when Justice Garba Mohammed concludes his reading?). Titled “Insecurity: Tension mounts as politicians ‘hijack’ Abuja – Kaduna trains”, the Blueprint report details how, with the Kaduna-Abuja road now practically taken over by kidnappers, rail has become the only secure means for commuting, especially for the high and the mighty. With that also, tickets are no longer available to ordinary citizens.

The newspaper had sent undercover reporters to train stations at both ends to observe for two days and their report is damning not only about how the facilities have deteriorated but also on corruption of the management. Their story on how the only readily available tickets now are “for those who want to stand”, with the others taken over by politicians, senior security personnel, public officials and those who are ready to pay premium prices reveals how officials of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) have gamed the system.

Given the huge investment in transport infrastructure by the current administration (mostly from Chinese loans), there is need for a management strategy, especially since other lines will soon come on stream. It seems we are using the old failed railway model that is also bound to crash. Elsewhere, the railway line belongs to the government as public infrastructure while the railway coaches and locomotives belong to an operating company. If we are not to run the Abuja-Kaduna train aground, maintenance should be outsourced to a company that works with the Chinese suppliers of the rolling stock. Passenger handling and station operations could then be run by a private entity. The same should go for the new lines being built.

Using the Abuja-Kaduna line as an example, the NRC Managing Director, ‎Mr Fidet Okhiria recently spoke to both the challenge and prospects. ‎“When we started, we were earning about N16 million and spending about N56 million, but right now, we can comfortably say we earn over N80 million although we still spend over N100 million, which is closer to breaking even”, said Okhiria. What that means is that if there is efficiency in operations, the railway system can at least sustain itself while we look for other means to repay the loans.

We cannot be borrowing to build the railway and be managing it the way we currently do. It makes no sense. The NRC should retreat into a regulatory and supervisory function while outsourcing the management (ticketing, maintenance etc.) to competent third parties. If that doesn’t happen, knowing the way Nigeria works, a time will come when train tickets will be available only to people who know somebody at the Villa!