By Demi Adeniyi
Though he was appointed last Tuesday, Dr Kayode Opeifa, the new Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, will resume formally at the Railway Corporation’s Ebute Metta Headquarters today.
His appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been variously applauded as the best yet from Mr President as it was a fitting cap to a man who has meritoriously discharged all responsibilities relating to sustainable mobility spanning over a decade.
Since the expiration of the tenure of the former Managing Director Engr Fidet Okhiria, on November 18, last year, transportation experts and other critical stakeholders, have been waiting with keen interest to know who the President would announce as his replacement. Their position was heightened by the heavy silence with which presidency greeted the ascension of Mr Ben Iloanusi, a “railway insider” as possible replacement for Okhiria, widely regarded as “the golden boy” of the nation’s dream of a modernized railway system.
As the curtain drops on Iloanusi’s 64 days as Acting Managing Director, many informed analysts said President Tinubu appointment of a fresh blood is an indication of his preference for a “fresh blood” to inject new perspective to the 113 year-old institution.
Opeifa’s Fidelity
Though not an engineer per se, Opeifa is a consummate specialist who is bringing to his new job a slew of handson expertise recently sharpened with his acquisition of a Ph.D in Logistics and Transport Planning from the nation’s leading school of Transportation and Logistics of the Lagos State University.
Opeifa was fondly remembered as the Lagos State Commissioner of Transportation. Under him, developed a Strategic Transportation Masterplan under the supervision of LAMATA, and a number of initiatives injected to change the state’s transportation narratives and promote public sector transportation. Successive administrations have continued to sustain this, turning the state into a stellar state in transportation systems.
But beyond the state, Opeifa also distinguished himself as former Vice Chairman of the Presidential Task Team (PTT), which resolved the close to two decades of perennial gridlock on the Apapa Ports Access Roads, an assignment he combined with his appointment as Transport Secretary at the Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCTA).
His appointment by former President Muhammadu Buhari, as member of the NRC Board, is however, perhaps, the most strategic opportunity which prequalified him for this assignment, making him the right peg in the right hole of the oldest corporation.
Tailor-Made Assignment
It would seem that Opeifa have his job well cut out for him.
With the supervision of the mother ministry – the Ministry of Transportation, (which just recently defended its 2025 budget), Opeifa is expected to hit the grounds running.
Supported by a workforce which have just been turbo-charged for efficient service in the new year, Opeifa is expected to consolidate on all the ongoing projects of the corporation with its apex contractor – Messrs China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), which gave Nigeria two institutions – the University of Transportation, Daura, Katsina State, and the Wagon Assembly Plant, at Kajola, in Ogun State.
Opeifa is also expected to continue the agenda of the government to link all state capitals by rail. Just recently, President Bola Tinubu approved two dry ports at Ijebu-Ode, in Ogun, and Moniya, Ibadan, in Oyo State. The NRC is expected to supply the feedstock needed by these new ports as well as the existing 10 scattered across the country.
The new helmsman is expected to sustain the rapid development of new lines which only recently gained the right fillip with the amendment to the Nigerian Railway Corporation Act 1954, which moved railway development and all connected issues from the exclusive to the concurrent list. The amendment is to propel state governments and other investors to come to the rail sector and ensure the revitalization of the sector.
This is projected to be the needed catalyst for state governments to be interested in continuing from where the federal network stops at their various capitals and connect rail services to their respective states. This would ensure the sustenance of the railway industry.
The new NRC MD, is expected to work with the Minister of Transportation for the next phase of the Nigeria Railway Strategic Master Plan, a 25 year document which midwifed the transformation being currently witnessed under the fourth republic since 2002. The document which expires this year gave a detailed blueprint of the three phased development which has been witnessed in the Nigerian Railway system viz railway rehabilitation, railway modernization and railway standardization. While the first phase addressed the rehabilitation of old narrow gauges – Western and Eastern Lines – the Lagos-Kano as well as the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, lines, the second phase, have added three new modern networks – the Abuja-Kaduna; the Itakpe-Warri and the lagos-Ibadan lines, to the nation’s rail assets. The amendment signed in 2023, by former President Buhari has also thrown a new challenge of coordinating state’s intervention in railway developments by the corporation. Already about six states among them; Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Plateau, Kwara are already at various stages of joining Lagos, which has taken off with two colour-coded railway initiatives which has changed transportation dynamics of the state.
Opeifa is also expected to continue where his predecessors stopped on the protracted issue of unbundling of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. Until few years ago, the federal government had decided unbundling the behemoth is the way to go, with the NRC to be unbundled into four different companies, with the NRC remaining as the regulator. Opeifa, may superintend the unbundling which gives verve to the corporation’s drive to serve as the regulator of Railway systems where state governments and other investors would be active players.
But Opeifa’s greatest asset – the workforce may be his archilles heels. How he navigates the various labour issues that the National Union of Railway (NUR) would put before his leadership would determine how far he would go and the far reaches of his successes in office.
Though the corporation may remain the last and only remaining legacy enterprise yet to be privatized by the government, how the Opeifa administration tackles its many challenges would define the manner of support it would continue to get from the government. This is even as he must continue to oil the relationship with the National Assembly whose oversight activities are central to the allocations the agency continue to enjoy year-on-year.
