• Pledges increased coaches and wagons movement frequency
- eulogises Daddy Showkey for supporting train services
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Dr Kayode Opeifa, has said the corporation is determined to make the train service a preferred mobility alternative across the country.
He listed the provision of passenger coaches and wagons as top priority of the management in its determination to provide convenient mobility alternative that is affordable, safe and secured for all Nigerians.
He spoke while receiving Nigerian top rated reggae artist John Odaife Asiemo, popularly called Daddy Showkey, in his office.
Opeifa had invited Daddy Showkey to the Corporation’s headquarters, to brief the management of his recent experience on the Warri-Itakpe Train Service (WITS), where he had to be entertaining the passengers while the train had a short delay as a result of logistics challenges.
The Managing Director who thanked Daddy Showkey for converting an issue into an opportunity, assured that the management is working to surmount all challenges and attract more Nigerians to patronise the railway.
He said the corporation is working at developing a dedicated portal for feedback mechanism to enable train passengers report their experiences directly so that such would be taken onboard and be addressed holistically to achieve a more people-friendly train service that the management under him are determined to put in place.
He appreciated all classes of Nigerians for appreciating the services of the corporation and patronising train services as alternatives to getting to their destinations.
“It is assuring that celebrities, such as Daddy Showkey, find an opportunity to ride on our train and it is even more gratifying that rather than join in adding to the stress and discomfort that our passengers might be going through, he on this particular occasion, decided to entertain them by singing, thereby lifting their spirit. This is salutary and a welcomed development for which we are very happy,” Opeifa said.
Responding, Daddy Showkey said, though his invitation to come meet with the management of the corporation was a pleasant surprise, he was not surprised as it goes to revalidate his conviction that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made the right choice in appointing Dr Kayode Opeifa, as the Managing Director of the corporation.
He said: “I have confidence in Dr Kayode Opeifa’s competence in driving change in the railway corporation judging from his past track records as the Commissioner for Transportation in Lagos State”.
He said though his experience during the trip from Warri on the train wasn’t that pleasant, it was one that showed him very clearly that the route is very lucrative as passengers oversubscribed the trip.
He therefore called on the Corporation to improve on the online booking system, and deploy more passenger coaches and even wagons, on the route to accommodate the movement of farm produce on the route.
