By Adeyinka Aderibigbe

The transportation sector operated for most part of the year below optimal capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the fear of resurgence and a second wave of the pandemic, the launch of Lot II, known as the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge, came with bright prospects.

From its take-off in October 2017, the pace of work had been appreciative. Given that the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri line, which was the nation’s first standard gauge, was delivered after 35 years, and the second, from Abuja to Kaduna, took 12 years, the best of cynics had written the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge off, as another white Elephant project by the Buhari administration.

The take-off of commercial activity was to clear the fog that the standard gauge was not a phantom project. Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi had been at the vanguard of changing the nation’s transportation narrative. By December, the only feature remaining on the project was the delivery of the stations.

Meanwhile, criticism also seems to be changing. The issue is no longer whether the government can deliver on the project, the criticism has shifted to the fares, which many considered “too unfriendly to the masses’’.

Amaechi, earlier in the month, had announced a range of fare ranging from N3000, economy class, to N5,000, business class and N6,000, first class. However, when the service eventually took-off, the government slashed the economy class to N2500. Amaechi has foreclosed a further review of the fares.

Buttressing the minister’s position, the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s Managing Director Fidet Okhiria said the service was affordable to many. According to him, the service would continue to run.

He said more coaches would be deployed to the train tracks as passenger volume increases.

“Two luxury coaches would be put on the tracks, while the frequency will increase to two, as soon as the passenger traffic increases,” Okhiria said.

Okhiria said the frequency of trips would also affect the movement timetable, which runs one return leg from Ibadan to Lagos. The train leaves Ibadan 8am and departs Lagos back to Ibadan at 4pm.

He said 15 Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) locomotives and 25 wagon locomotives had been ordered, while wagons and coaches of various categories had been ordered by the Federal Government to be deployed on the route once it begins commercial operations.

The rail is also seen as the game changer in the maritime sector. The government sees rail as the solution to the traffic gridlock at Apapa and by extension, Lagos. Government has already given a marching order to the APMT to work its operations round the contractor in bringing the tracks into the port area for seamless haulage operations.

An active train system in the ports would expand the port’s potential as the cash cow of the nation’s economy.

Not only has the subsector domesticated the Executive Order 5, which focuses on the ease of doing business at the ports, it is preparing all agencies of government in the sector to gear up and police the nation’s waterways and national assets in order to deliver more funds to the coffers.

Despite the huge funding gaps, there has also been so much going on, on the inland waterways. One of beautiful interventions was the provision of water ambulances to prevent deaths in the event of accidents on the waterways.

The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) embarked on aggressive enlightenment to drive home safety tips and voluntary compliance with waterways regulations by all operators.

But perhaps, more significant was the readiness of NIWA to begin the operation of its strategic inland ports, such as the Baro River Port in Niger State, the flagship port in the North, which despite the huge investments, were rendered unusable by lack of motorable roads to connect the inland port.

NIWA also improved its partnership with other states with effectiveness as the regulator on the waterways.

State of roads

Nigeria has 108,000 km of surfaced roads as at 1990. It is home to the largest road network in West Africa and second largest, south of the Sahara.

Since independence, the country has been battling dilapidated and decaying road infrastructure. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, for instance remains jaded, with the contractor announcing a new date of 2022 as completion date for the repair works on this critical road.

The government approved about N134 billion in 2018 to accommodate more features on some sections of this critical road.

The repairs started in 2000.  At the last count over 150 highways, 66 interstate roads and 45 bridges scattered across 34 states, are in various stages of completion.

Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola had caused a stir last year, when he said the 2020 allocation could not even pay outstanding debts owed contractors and canvassed tolling some critical roads.

Southeast and Southsouth remained zones with the worst road profile, according to statistics  by the FMWH. The story has hardly changed as the year winds down.

Fashola believes the administration is doing so much with much less, underscoring the regime’s penchant for prudence in the public sector.

But Nigerians seem not to see yet the gains of such frugal spending on critical roads.

Enabling laws

Despite its efforts, the Eighth Assembly could not deliver on any of the six bills that could have strengthened the transportation industry.

The Ninth Assembly is yet to begin work on all the bills for the sector. One of such bills was the bill seeking to repeal the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) for a Federal Roads Authority, which passed second reading at the Eighth Senate.

Other such bills still hanging are: the Nigerian Railway Corporation (Act 1955) Amendment Bill, the Nigeria Transportation Commission Bill, which seeks to establish a regulator for the transportation sector, the Nigerian Shippers Council Amendment Bill, and the Nigeria Ports Authority Amendment Bill.

– The Nation