• pledges more far-reaching developmental projects across the country
By: Adeyinka Aderibigbe
Nigeria’s first standard gauge system, the Itakpe-Warri railway, came to life yesterday. At exactly 1.25 pm, President Muhammadu Buhari virtually commissioned the project, signalling the official commercial activity on the single-line standard gauge corridor.
The waiting took Nigerians 33 years, the project has started in 1987, by President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida.
Buhari described the completion and actualisation of the project as a milestone and praised the host communities for their patience during the long wait for the project.
To witness the epoch-making event were; the Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Pauline Tallen, the Minister of Police Affairs, Minister of State for Labour and Productivity Festus Keyamo, SAN, and the Minister of State for Budget and Economic Planning.
Also on hand to celebrate the historic event were the Governor of Delta State, Sen. Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, and his Edo State colleague Mr Godwin Obaseki, Chairman of the National Railway Corporation Engr Ibrahim Alhassan Musa and other top officials of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, the cil of Delta State traditional rulers, and other top party chieftains.
Buhari said he has no doubt the train would increase the volume of trade as well as resuscitate industries which are either dead or had gone moribund as a result of the collapse and abandonment of the rail system.
He said he is happy that the dream of birthing the Itakpe-Warri train system is being completed under his administration, adding that when fully operational, it will link people across the rural divide and expand the frontiers of trade and commerce in the country.
“This corridor, I believe will lead to an eater and better standard of living of all the host communities, promote camaraderie and friendship across the nation, ” the President said.
He added that he has approved the naming of the 12 railway stations after some of the nation’s heroes and political leaders in recognition of their roles in national development.
He listed among others; the renaming of the Itakpe Station after former Kwara State Governor late Adamu Attah, the Ajaokuta Station after the late Senate Leader Abubakar Olusola Saraki, the Agenebode Station after General George Innih, the Uromi Station after Chief Anthony Enahoro, Abraka Station after Gen David Ejoor, Sir Michael Ibru (Okwarra), Vice Marshal Mike Aikhigbe (Agbor station) and Goodluck Jonathan (the railway facility complex at Owa-Oyibo) among others.
He said his administration would continue in its strides to bequeath to Nigerians notable infrastructural landmarks across the country.
He, therefore, urged all host communities as well as other sectors of the economy that would benefit from the rail project just delivered to them to protect and sustain the infrastructure so that they would continue to maximise the benefit that could be derived from it.
Earlier, the Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi said the Itakpe-Warri rail line which was originally conceived as
an industrial line had suffered several abandonment until 2015 when the Buhari administration took it upon itself to deliver it.
And to prove critics of the administration who has been accusing President Buhari of abandoning the Southsouth wrong, Anaechi said 90 per cent of the rail project is located in the NigerDelta zone, with only two communities of Itakpe and Ajaokuta, in Kogi State being part of the project.
Amaechi recalled that the project, which was started in 1987, by President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida as a unit in the nation’s strive for industrial development, as it was meant to take iron ore from Itakpe to Ajaokuta Steel Complex and to take finished products from the complex to Aladja Steels in Warri.
Describing the project as Africa’s first standard gauge, Amaechi said the project which was met in a very bad state in 2015 when the Buhari administration came into power was accomplished from budgetary allocation without any loan whatsoever.
“This project has suffered a lot of setbacks in the last 33 years, even despite the government giving out the rail component as a collateral element in the iron ore mining and steel plant concession agreement of the 1990s.
” The project was transferred from the Federal Ministry of Mines and Power in June 1996 as a result of government’s decision to transform Itakpe-Warri railway to the Nigerian Railway central line, and assign to it multi-functional roles to provide freight and passenger services to serve as the catalyst for agricultural, manufacturing, mining sectors in addition to passenger services.”
He said the collapse of the Iron Ore and Mining Concession agreement led to another phase of neglect of the project, which suffered “neglect and experienced massive vandalisation of its infrastructure.
He said he is happy that the Buhari administration is handing over to the people a legacy project that now has 22 station buildings Z well as an intermodal bus terminal at Itakpe Station, all of which were awarded to Messrs CCECC, while the construction of sidings into the railway auxiliary, including the locomotive workshop, the rolling stocks depot, the maintenance workshop, fuel depot and goods warehouse, health, , police post as well school and workers quarters, the administrative block, the communication towers, were added to the main contractor Julius Berger.
He said government would soon sign off on the award of a contract to extend the railway to the Ports in Warri in the south, as well as connect it from Itakpe to the FCT, Abuja on the Northern flank.
In their goodwill messages, the Governor’s Delta and Edo States, Ifeanyi Okowa and Godwin Obaseki commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment to transforming landmark infrastructure which they said would transform the south south landscape, generate employment and bring rapid growth and industrialisation.
Obaseki who spoke first said his government would partner in ensuring that the project is maximally utilised. He said the government would partner with the Federal Ministry of Transportation to ensure the construction of a siding to link the state’s industrial park established in Benin city to corridor in order to ensure an economic boost to investors in the state.
Okowa in his stead praised the Buhari administration for his foresight in completing the project and naming it’s major hub after an illustrious son of Niger Delta former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said like Oliver Twist, he would be a ski g for the linking of the system to the port town of Warri so that the port would be able to maximize its installed potentials events he looks forward to it’s earliest link with the FCT, to ease the stress of road travels to Abuja.