In the concluding section of the three-part series reporter's diary on Nigeria railway system, Kemi Busari shares his experiences of ticket racketeering, emerging corruption and traits of degeneration in the newly inaugurated Kaduna-Abuja light rail. He also beams searchlight on how to rid the Railway system of corruption and make it functional in Nigeria.
Kubwa ticketing office
Read part one here: Osogbo to Kaduna: 26 Brutish Hours on a Nigerian Train [1]
Read part two here: Osogbo to Kaduna: 26 Brutish Hours on a Nigerian Train [2]
Its 11:05 a.m. of December 28th at the Rigasa station of the Abuja-Kaduna light rail services. The train had just left for the morning journey to Abuja, and if I must make the journey that day, I will have to wait till 6 p.m., a female security guard explains.
Rigasa station, Kaduna
The task of checking passengers in, helping some with their luggage and explaining to countless others when the evening journey ticket will be sold, has wearied her. Dressed in yellow on black uniform with a badge bearing the inscription: “Kwachasson Guards,” she finally retires to a chair in the waiting room.
For most of the time, the sleep has been more of a self-induced pain than a period to rest for her, and when finally, a lousy passenger barges in with his heavy luggage, one she must check, she abandon the sleep.
‘Have they started selling the ticket,’ she asks me. “You have to be fast in buying it before it get exhausted,” Esther as she told me her name to be added after I replied in the negative.
By 1 p.m., a man with an overall marked ‘China Civil Engineering, Nigeria Railway System’ emerged from the ticket office. Speaking in both Hausa and English, he announced the commencement of ticket sales.
A passenger with his heavy luggage
Rush for first class tickets
Since its inauguration by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday July 26, 2016, the $1.457 billion Nigeria’s first high speed rail system, which connects the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and northern commercial capital, Kaduna, had begun operations.
The system enjoys a high patronage owing to relative affordability – N600 for second class, N900 for first class tickets -with a relative speed of about 2 hours from Rigasa to Kubwa, and the comfort of traveling in a well cushioned, fully air-conditioned train moving on a standard gauge track.
These, combined, explain the usual rush for tickets and for this day, it is no exception.
The train schedule
“Can I have a first class ticket? I ask the man at the ticket office. “No, first class tickets have been sold out,” he replied. How? When? The train left for the first journey to Abuja by 10:40 and since then I have been around, who bought the tickets? These questions flooded my mind like a volcanic eruption.
I bought the second class ticket and decided to find answers to these questions.
Lead to corruption in the system
I have been sitting close to another hour and now, the waiting room is filled up with passengers and luggage, waiting for the evening train.
For most of the sitting period, I conversed with Peter, another passenger who came early and was denied a first class journey like I was.
However, a conversation soon ensued; a conversation which answered some of my questions and ripped open the veil on corruption in the new light rail system.
All the while, I was sitting on a chair close to an office marked ‘Comprehensive Duty Room’ with the logo of the Nigeria Police Force. Few minutes after the first round of ticket sales, Esther, my security guard friend, entered the office to converse with a man who appears to be her superior, judging from the tone.
“Do you know that your people have started again? They are thieves and I don’t know why they will be doing like that. People need tickets and they will….” The voice was overwhelmed by a sudden increase in volume of noise in the waiting hall.
‘Here is the lead,’ I said to myself and minutes after Esther emerged from the office, I made the needed move.
Ticket racketeering: the business of the day
A lunch offer for Esther and her friend, Adebisi, was enough to earn me further acquaintance and valuable information.
“If you come to the station early, say three or four hours before the commencement of the journey, you will get ticket easily but if you are late, you’ll have to wait for the next journey.” Esther explains.
At this juncture, I decided to put on a young millionaire’s status to squeeze out more from Esther. “I just got a job in Abuja which requires going to office three days in a week. My job is flexible so can I always go with the morning journey. In cases where I didn’t arrive early enough, how can I possibly get the ticket?”
It worked. Esther soon started to explain how the ticket racketeering business and the role of railway officials, without any exertion on my part.
“It is possible for you to get your ticket every day before your journey even without showing up for it. You just have to speak to the ticketer, offer him a price above the selling price and make arrangements for your travelling. That’s how they sell most of the first class tickets.
“And there are thieves around who thrive on this ticketing business. They buy the tickets at normal price, hoard and wait till peak periods before selling at high prices.
“The business,” Esther explains further, “is not exclusive of independent racketeers as men in uniform of the Nigeria Railway Corporation also perpetrate the act. They value would-be-buyers’ affluence by physical appearance and offer tickets to the ‘highest bidder.’
“You can just come here tomorrow around 4 or 4:30 p.m. when the ticket has been exhausted. They are the ones that will call you as you arrive and they are in the usual habit of stating their prices. A ticket of N600 is normally sold for N1, 000 and above at such rush hours.”
Esther cut short the conversation at the arrival of a male guard and continues afterwards. She offered to help me in buying the tickets at the Kubwa station where she is based and Adebisi agreed to help in buying in Rigasa.
After the exchange of contacts, I decided to witness the racketeering business for the day. It’s getting to 3 p.m. now, and we are edging closer to the “rush hour.”
Esther was right, after all
By 4:20 p.m., the ticketer announced that the available tickets has been exhausted. Security check was raised higher to prevent ‘no ticket passengers’ from constituting disturbance. By 4:30 p.m., passengers who couldn’t purchase tickets gather, pleading that the ticketer sell some more.
In response, he closed the office window, packed his belongings and gets set to leave the premises. In the process of leaving, he was accosted by intending passengers. They pleaded to be considered.
A railway official emerged from one of the offices to address the passengers. He explained to the passengers that they don’t outsell the day’s threshold based on available space. However, they could be considered for standing in the train.
Travelers shut out of the station after exhaustion of Day's ticket
I stayed around, looking for suspicious faces to approach for a ticket. My first two attempts failed. The first, a passenger with ticket waiting for the train, and the snub from the other was enough to tell that he was waiting to purchase ticket for standing.
When all hope of experiencing ticket racketeering seem lost, two white ladies walked in by 5:15 p.m., 30 minutes after the train arrived from Abuja.
The white ladies were approached by one of the railway officials who explained that tickets for the journey had been exhausted. That if they insist on travelling that day, they will have to wait for a little while, to purchase tickets which will qualify them for standing positions in the train. They agreed.
After about 5 minutes wait, a young man who appears to be in his twenties, dressed in black from head to toe, approach the white ladies. I move closer to eavesdrop on their conversation.
After some minutes, a few wads of freshly minted N500 notes exchanged hands, and the young man was off to get tickets for his clients.
Exchange of Naira notes for ticket
Some minutes later, the railway officials announced that the journey will start by 6 p.m. and the final security check on passengers commence.
Did the whites make the journey?
The train, according to schedule, travels to and fro Abuja twice a day and stops for five minutes in Rijana, Jere and Kubwa stations for passengers to alight and others to board.
The 186.5 km standard gauge track built by the China Railway Construction Corporation has double lines, one first class coach, three second class coaches and can travel at up to 150km per hour.
‘The journey to Kubwa is two hours,’ one of the railway officials had assured after being asked.
Before the train takes off, I decide to move around the coaches to see if the white ladies are on board and their sitting position.
Expectedly, they are. Seated at the rear end of one of the second class coaches. With camera placed clandestinely on my body, I took a shot of these “back-door ticket” passengers.
The whites on board
Like old railway, like new
The engine starts at exactly 6 p.m. and indeed, the standard gauge train service is an eye-catch in modern railway services in the country. I took a seat at the window side of one of the three seaters, and shortly, was joined by two elderly men.
The well-cushioned chairs are lined in rows of two and three seaters on either side and in all, each of the coaches have the capacity to house 100 passengers.
But on this particular journey and more surprisingly, the train operates the ‘barrack method’ just like the old railway system.
The railway officials had decided to sell tickets to passengers who agreed to take standing positions after the early arrivals had taken their seat. This move did not only overcrowd the train but also created a stiff competition for fresh air coming from the air conditioner.
“This train can run up to 150 kilometres per hour at full capacity and if it does that, we will get to Abuja in 1 hour, 15 minutes instead of two hours,” one of the men seated on my row said with confidence.
Mr Bashir is a civil servant who works in Abuja and had decided to spend the Christmas with his family in Kaduna. He was joined in the conversation by Mr Ibrahim who visited Kaduna on excursion from office. Minutes later, the three of us became engrossed in a discussion.
“Imagine these people selling tickets to passengers when they know they can’t offer them seats. They collected N600 each from them and now they tell them to stand for two hours journey,” Mr Ibrahim lamented.
“What is the difference between this train and that old ones we use. We are all corrupt in this country. Nobody wants to say or write bad things about the government once their pockets are filled. On the day this train was inaugurated, we had so many journalists around, all the media houses reported it but after that, none of them will ever come back to see what passengers are going through. None of them,” he said with emphasis, oblivious of the fact that he was seated beside one.
Passengers in standing positions
Mr Bashir cut in, narrating how the train used to be at the early weeks, months of inauguration compared to now.
“Before, when this rail system started operations, each ticket had seat numbers and it was compulsory you sit on the specified seat number, but see what it has turned to today. See how we struggled to enter.
“If you go to that other side, you will see passengers hanging at the door and many others sitting on the floor.”
On the floor? In the new Abuja-Kaduna train? I decided to make way to one of the gangways and after elbowing my way through the mammoth crowd of standing passengers, the daunting sight staring at me confirmed Mr Bashir’s frustrations.
About 20 people are standing in each of the gangways - passage in between coaches - while some have resorted to sitting on bare floor while the journey lasted.
Passengers sitting on the floor
Like old toilet, like new
The train stopped at the Rijana station by 6:40 p.m. and thereafter in Jere by 7:25 p.m. At each of these stations the train waited for about five minutes for passengers to alight and board the train.
My two companions, Mr Ibrahim and Mr Bashir, have taken solace in the cool weather condition provided by the air conditioner. They are asleep just like other passengers who are lucky enough to get a seat.
As the journey progresses, the digital screens placed at each entrance of the coaches roll out announcement in quick succession:
“Please pay attention to safety,” “mind the gap between the stairs on the platform when boarding and deboarding,” “there are two toilets and waste bins at the two ends of the sitting area,” “we are arriving at…"
All information on the board seem normal and helpful until this; “please do not flush the toilet when the train is at the station or about to leave.”
Why this caution? To find an answer, I decide to visit one of the toilets and after yet another wriggling through standing passengers, who have become increasingly annoyed by my disturbances, I entered one of the toilets.
Coated in aluminum and neatly kept, the train toilet had the sophistication of a modern train, but what are we to make of this caution not to flush the toilet while the train is stationary? Could it be that the toilet is channeled straight to the tracks? I searched furtively for the answers but failed each time I tried.
I retire to my sitting position and the journey continues. Still looking at the digital screen, I saw another shocking message; ‘Happy 50th Independence Day From Nigeria Railway Corporation’
By 8 p.m., the train stops at the Kubwa railway station where I alight. As I walk through the lawn, heading to the departure, I still continue to wonder why the Nigeria Railway Corporation continues to dish out to its passengers a seemingly belated independence anniversary message months after the celebration.
How to make Nigeria railway work
“I wish to assure Nigerians that most state capitals and major commercial and production centres will be linked with railway system as a way of bringing about rapid socio-economic development and improving the quality of life of the Nigerians and promoting social and regional integration.
“Furthermore, I wish to also reassure Nigerians that due attention will be placed on pursuing the 25-year Strategic Railway Master Plan which is aimed at rehabilitating the existing 3,505km narrow gauge rail line and developing and constructing new standard gauge rail lines across the country.”
These were the words of President Muhammadu Buhari at the inauguration of the Abuja-Kaduna light rail system on Tuesday July 26, 2016.
However, Mr. President needs to look beyond these ‘mere promises’ and pursue a more realistic plan, posits Dr. Samuel Odewumi, Dean, School of Transportation, Lagos State University, LASU.
He said: “25 years is too prolonged. What if the world have moved away from rail transport before the expiration of the time? What if a new administration discard the project? With commitment and a sense of responsibility, the government can achieve this feat within a shorter period of time.”
“To achieve this a legal backing, to prevent a new government from discarding the project should be drafted, partisan agreement between political and professional stakeholders to make it a Nigerian project and not APC or other party and proper engagement with the public should also be worked out.”
Speaking on the best way to rid the system of corruption, Odewumi advise President Buhari to employ the ‘aircraft crash investigation model.’ “Under this method, the emphasis is not on ‘who is guilty’ but ‘what is wrong.’ The model asks questions of what went missing to allow corruption and fixes it to avoid such in the future. Buhari’s government is fighting corruption in the past and this can never work out for any government parastatal, not the railway,” he maintained.
Emphasising the need for private sector engagement in the new Kaduna-Abuja light rail system, the don noted that ‘it is impossible for the government to make any meaningful success in the sector without a Public Private Partnership.’
“We can only have the issue of ticket racketeering, overcrowding if the government is still managing the system. If I am to be in charge of the railway system in Nigeria, I will give out one coach each to different investors and allow them to operate in a competitive environment. The only solution to revitalizing the railway system is to inject the private sector that will put its eyes and nose in the business,” he concluded.
Kubwa ticketing office
Read part one here: Osogbo to Kaduna: 26 Brutish Hours on a Nigerian Train [1]
Read part two here: Osogbo to Kaduna: 26 Brutish Hours on a Nigerian Train [2]
Its 11:05 a.m. of December 28th at the Rigasa station of the Abuja-Kaduna light rail services. The train had just left for the morning journey to Abuja, and if I must make the journey that day, I will have to wait till 6 p.m., a female security guard explains.
Rigasa station, Kaduna
The task of checking passengers in, helping some with their luggage and explaining to countless others when the evening journey ticket will be sold, has wearied her. Dressed in yellow on black uniform with a badge bearing the inscription: “Kwachasson Guards,” she finally retires to a chair in the waiting room.
For most of the time, the sleep has been more of a self-induced pain than a period to rest for her, and when finally, a lousy passenger barges in with his heavy luggage, one she must check, she abandon the sleep.
‘Have they started selling the ticket,’ she asks me. “You have to be fast in buying it before it get exhausted,” Esther as she told me her name to be added after I replied in the negative.
By 1 p.m., a man with an overall marked ‘China Civil Engineering, Nigeria Railway System’ emerged from the ticket office. Speaking in both Hausa and English, he announced the commencement of ticket sales.
A passenger with his heavy luggage
Rush for first class tickets
Since its inauguration by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday July 26, 2016, the $1.457 billion Nigeria’s first high speed rail system, which connects the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and northern commercial capital, Kaduna, had begun operations.
The system enjoys a high patronage owing to relative affordability – N600 for second class, N900 for first class tickets -with a relative speed of about 2 hours from Rigasa to Kubwa, and the comfort of traveling in a well cushioned, fully air-conditioned train moving on a standard gauge track.
These, combined, explain the usual rush for tickets and for this day, it is no exception.
The train schedule
“Can I have a first class ticket? I ask the man at the ticket office. “No, first class tickets have been sold out,” he replied. How? When? The train left for the first journey to Abuja by 10:40 and since then I have been around, who bought the tickets? These questions flooded my mind like a volcanic eruption.
I bought the second class ticket and decided to find answers to these questions.
Lead to corruption in the system
I have been sitting close to another hour and now, the waiting room is filled up with passengers and luggage, waiting for the evening train.
For most of the sitting period, I conversed with Peter, another passenger who came early and was denied a first class journey like I was.
However, a conversation soon ensued; a conversation which answered some of my questions and ripped open the veil on corruption in the new light rail system.
All the while, I was sitting on a chair close to an office marked ‘Comprehensive Duty Room’ with the logo of the Nigeria Police Force. Few minutes after the first round of ticket sales, Esther, my security guard friend, entered the office to converse with a man who appears to be her superior, judging from the tone.
“Do you know that your people have started again? They are thieves and I don’t know why they will be doing like that. People need tickets and they will….” The voice was overwhelmed by a sudden increase in volume of noise in the waiting hall.
‘Here is the lead,’ I said to myself and minutes after Esther emerged from the office, I made the needed move.
Ticket racketeering: the business of the day
A lunch offer for Esther and her friend, Adebisi, was enough to earn me further acquaintance and valuable information.
“If you come to the station early, say three or four hours before the commencement of the journey, you will get ticket easily but if you are late, you’ll have to wait for the next journey.” Esther explains.
At this juncture, I decided to put on a young millionaire’s status to squeeze out more from Esther. “I just got a job in Abuja which requires going to office three days in a week. My job is flexible so can I always go with the morning journey. In cases where I didn’t arrive early enough, how can I possibly get the ticket?”
It worked. Esther soon started to explain how the ticket racketeering business and the role of railway officials, without any exertion on my part.
“It is possible for you to get your ticket every day before your journey even without showing up for it. You just have to speak to the ticketer, offer him a price above the selling price and make arrangements for your travelling. That’s how they sell most of the first class tickets.
“And there are thieves around who thrive on this ticketing business. They buy the tickets at normal price, hoard and wait till peak periods before selling at high prices.
“The business,” Esther explains further, “is not exclusive of independent racketeers as men in uniform of the Nigeria Railway Corporation also perpetrate the act. They value would-be-buyers’ affluence by physical appearance and offer tickets to the ‘highest bidder.’
“You can just come here tomorrow around 4 or 4:30 p.m. when the ticket has been exhausted. They are the ones that will call you as you arrive and they are in the usual habit of stating their prices. A ticket of N600 is normally sold for N1, 000 and above at such rush hours.”
Esther cut short the conversation at the arrival of a male guard and continues afterwards. She offered to help me in buying the tickets at the Kubwa station where she is based and Adebisi agreed to help in buying in Rigasa.
After the exchange of contacts, I decided to witness the racketeering business for the day. It’s getting to 3 p.m. now, and we are edging closer to the “rush hour.”
Esther was right, after all
By 4:20 p.m., the ticketer announced that the available tickets has been exhausted. Security check was raised higher to prevent ‘no ticket passengers’ from constituting disturbance. By 4:30 p.m., passengers who couldn’t purchase tickets gather, pleading that the ticketer sell some more.
In response, he closed the office window, packed his belongings and gets set to leave the premises. In the process of leaving, he was accosted by intending passengers. They pleaded to be considered.
A railway official emerged from one of the offices to address the passengers. He explained to the passengers that they don’t outsell the day’s threshold based on available space. However, they could be considered for standing in the train.
Travelers shut out of the station after exhaustion of Day's ticket
I stayed around, looking for suspicious faces to approach for a ticket. My first two attempts failed. The first, a passenger with ticket waiting for the train, and the snub from the other was enough to tell that he was waiting to purchase ticket for standing.
When all hope of experiencing ticket racketeering seem lost, two white ladies walked in by 5:15 p.m., 30 minutes after the train arrived from Abuja.
The white ladies were approached by one of the railway officials who explained that tickets for the journey had been exhausted. That if they insist on travelling that day, they will have to wait for a little while, to purchase tickets which will qualify them for standing positions in the train. They agreed.
After about 5 minutes wait, a young man who appears to be in his twenties, dressed in black from head to toe, approach the white ladies. I move closer to eavesdrop on their conversation.
After some minutes, a few wads of freshly minted N500 notes exchanged hands, and the young man was off to get tickets for his clients.
Exchange of Naira notes for ticket
Some minutes later, the railway officials announced that the journey will start by 6 p.m. and the final security check on passengers commence.
Did the whites make the journey?
The train, according to schedule, travels to and fro Abuja twice a day and stops for five minutes in Rijana, Jere and Kubwa stations for passengers to alight and others to board.
The 186.5 km standard gauge track built by the China Railway Construction Corporation has double lines, one first class coach, three second class coaches and can travel at up to 150km per hour.
‘The journey to Kubwa is two hours,’ one of the railway officials had assured after being asked.
Before the train takes off, I decide to move around the coaches to see if the white ladies are on board and their sitting position.
Expectedly, they are. Seated at the rear end of one of the second class coaches. With camera placed clandestinely on my body, I took a shot of these “back-door ticket” passengers.
The whites on board
Like old railway, like new
The engine starts at exactly 6 p.m. and indeed, the standard gauge train service is an eye-catch in modern railway services in the country. I took a seat at the window side of one of the three seaters, and shortly, was joined by two elderly men.
The well-cushioned chairs are lined in rows of two and three seaters on either side and in all, each of the coaches have the capacity to house 100 passengers.
But on this particular journey and more surprisingly, the train operates the ‘barrack method’ just like the old railway system.
The railway officials had decided to sell tickets to passengers who agreed to take standing positions after the early arrivals had taken their seat. This move did not only overcrowd the train but also created a stiff competition for fresh air coming from the air conditioner.
“This train can run up to 150 kilometres per hour at full capacity and if it does that, we will get to Abuja in 1 hour, 15 minutes instead of two hours,” one of the men seated on my row said with confidence.
Mr Bashir is a civil servant who works in Abuja and had decided to spend the Christmas with his family in Kaduna. He was joined in the conversation by Mr Ibrahim who visited Kaduna on excursion from office. Minutes later, the three of us became engrossed in a discussion.
“Imagine these people selling tickets to passengers when they know they can’t offer them seats. They collected N600 each from them and now they tell them to stand for two hours journey,” Mr Ibrahim lamented.
“What is the difference between this train and that old ones we use. We are all corrupt in this country. Nobody wants to say or write bad things about the government once their pockets are filled. On the day this train was inaugurated, we had so many journalists around, all the media houses reported it but after that, none of them will ever come back to see what passengers are going through. None of them,” he said with emphasis, oblivious of the fact that he was seated beside one.
Passengers in standing positions
Mr Bashir cut in, narrating how the train used to be at the early weeks, months of inauguration compared to now.
“Before, when this rail system started operations, each ticket had seat numbers and it was compulsory you sit on the specified seat number, but see what it has turned to today. See how we struggled to enter.
“If you go to that other side, you will see passengers hanging at the door and many others sitting on the floor.”
On the floor? In the new Abuja-Kaduna train? I decided to make way to one of the gangways and after elbowing my way through the mammoth crowd of standing passengers, the daunting sight staring at me confirmed Mr Bashir’s frustrations.
About 20 people are standing in each of the gangways - passage in between coaches - while some have resorted to sitting on bare floor while the journey lasted.
Passengers sitting on the floor
Like old toilet, like new
The train stopped at the Rijana station by 6:40 p.m. and thereafter in Jere by 7:25 p.m. At each of these stations the train waited for about five minutes for passengers to alight and board the train.
My two companions, Mr Ibrahim and Mr Bashir, have taken solace in the cool weather condition provided by the air conditioner. They are asleep just like other passengers who are lucky enough to get a seat.
As the journey progresses, the digital screens placed at each entrance of the coaches roll out announcement in quick succession:
“Please pay attention to safety,” “mind the gap between the stairs on the platform when boarding and deboarding,” “there are two toilets and waste bins at the two ends of the sitting area,” “we are arriving at…"
All information on the board seem normal and helpful until this; “please do not flush the toilet when the train is at the station or about to leave.”
Why this caution? To find an answer, I decide to visit one of the toilets and after yet another wriggling through standing passengers, who have become increasingly annoyed by my disturbances, I entered one of the toilets.
Coated in aluminum and neatly kept, the train toilet had the sophistication of a modern train, but what are we to make of this caution not to flush the toilet while the train is stationary? Could it be that the toilet is channeled straight to the tracks? I searched furtively for the answers but failed each time I tried.
I retire to my sitting position and the journey continues. Still looking at the digital screen, I saw another shocking message; ‘Happy 50th Independence Day From Nigeria Railway Corporation’
By 8 p.m., the train stops at the Kubwa railway station where I alight. As I walk through the lawn, heading to the departure, I still continue to wonder why the Nigeria Railway Corporation continues to dish out to its passengers a seemingly belated independence anniversary message months after the celebration.
How to make Nigeria railway work
“I wish to assure Nigerians that most state capitals and major commercial and production centres will be linked with railway system as a way of bringing about rapid socio-economic development and improving the quality of life of the Nigerians and promoting social and regional integration.
“Furthermore, I wish to also reassure Nigerians that due attention will be placed on pursuing the 25-year Strategic Railway Master Plan which is aimed at rehabilitating the existing 3,505km narrow gauge rail line and developing and constructing new standard gauge rail lines across the country.”
These were the words of President Muhammadu Buhari at the inauguration of the Abuja-Kaduna light rail system on Tuesday July 26, 2016.
However, Mr. President needs to look beyond these ‘mere promises’ and pursue a more realistic plan, posits Dr. Samuel Odewumi, Dean, School of Transportation, Lagos State University, LASU.
He said: “25 years is too prolonged. What if the world have moved away from rail transport before the expiration of the time? What if a new administration discard the project? With commitment and a sense of responsibility, the government can achieve this feat within a shorter period of time.”
“To achieve this a legal backing, to prevent a new government from discarding the project should be drafted, partisan agreement between political and professional stakeholders to make it a Nigerian project and not APC or other party and proper engagement with the public should also be worked out.”
Speaking on the best way to rid the system of corruption, Odewumi advise President Buhari to employ the ‘aircraft crash investigation model.’ “Under this method, the emphasis is not on ‘who is guilty’ but ‘what is wrong.’ The model asks questions of what went missing to allow corruption and fixes it to avoid such in the future. Buhari’s government is fighting corruption in the past and this can never work out for any government parastatal, not the railway,” he maintained.
Emphasising the need for private sector engagement in the new Kaduna-Abuja light rail system, the don noted that ‘it is impossible for the government to make any meaningful success in the sector without a Public Private Partnership.’
“We can only have the issue of ticket racketeering, overcrowding if the government is still managing the system. If I am to be in charge of the railway system in Nigeria, I will give out one coach each to different investors and allow them to operate in a competitive environment. The only solution to revitalizing the railway system is to inject the private sector that will put its eyes and nose in the business,” he concluded.
