Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) Chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur resumed penultimate Monday, with a tour of the corporation’s Lagos office. He unveiled his plan after the tour, ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE reports.
ALL eyes were on Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, chairman of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) when he resumed work penultimate Monday. He swung into action, visiting some sections to ascertain the state of things at the corporation.
He was accompanied to the NRC compound in Yaba, Lagos Mainland Local Government Area, by the Managing Director, Prince Adeseyi Sijuwade.
The Director, Mechanical, Electrical and Signals, Mr. Fidet Okhiria, took Tukur first to the Running Shed, where all serviceable locomotives plying the rail lines are checked before being rolled out. At the shed, engineers and artisans were fixing three locomotives, two of which are used in running the Iddo to Ijoko, Ogun State shuttle. The third locomotive shuttles between Lagos and Kano.
Materials, such as brake pads, rollers and others, are fixed at the shed. Scraps are disposed.
Tukur checked the battery room, where all batteries used by the engines are charged. Okhiria said each engine needs 72 volts power to move, adding that engineers at the unit are charged to ensure that the batteries are adequately charged before embarking on any trip.
At the laboratory room, Tukur was told that the unit is charged with ensuring that appropriate temperature is maintained by the locomotives during their trips.
He was also at the worksyard, which Okhiria described as the “heartbeat” of the NRC.
Its only modern equipment is a self-propelled 60-ton crane. Okhiria said the crane has made the recovery of broken down or obsolete rolling stock abandoned across the country easier. NRC, he said, has two of such cranes.
The cranes, which he said could lift a locomotive simultaneously for repair, are also fixed with sensors that could make them immovable wherever they sense a broken or uneven lane.
Okhiria said the railway could do with eight more of such cranes. He said if one could be stationed in each of the eight divisions of the railway, the turn around time of getting to areas of distress would be reduced and the railway’s efficiency and speed would tremendously improve.
“Mr. Chairman, if we get a distress call at Minna, it would take this crane two days, moving from Lagos, to get there, clear the obstruction and make the lane moveable. That would greatly improve if we have a crane stationed at Minna, Offa or even Kaduna.”
He said accidented rolling stocks were being recovered across the country, adding that the corporation has moved as far as Dagbolu in Osun State, and would comb the paths to Kano to recover obsolete properties.
The tour was an “eye opener” for Tukur, who learnt that the corporation committed some blunders in the past. One of such was the purchase by the late Gen. Sani Abacha of three locomotives from China.
Showing Tukur the unserviceable carcass of one of the locomotives, abandoned at the running shed, Okhiria said it went bad within a year of use, adding that its parts are unserviceable due to the engine’s poor quality.
“We have learnt from our past mistakes. We specifically instruct our suppliers to get us engines made in America, Britain, Germany or Russia,” Okhiria said.
Addressing reporters at the boardroom, Tukur described the tour as an “eye opener” which has enabled him to know the enormity of his assignment.
He said he was prepared to tackle the rot and make the railway an institution that Nigerians would be proud of.
Tukur listed his achievements at the Nigeria Ports Authority, where he served as the Managing Director in the 70s. He said if he could give the nation 18 new ports within five years, he could do more for the Nigeria Railway.
He said his tenure should be measured not by the improvement in the local shuttles and interconnectedness of the rail system across the country, but by his ability to launch a system that could link Africa by rail line.
“We have heard of plans by China to build a rail line that would link China to France. There is nothing stopping Nigeria from taking the lead in linking Nigeria to Johannesburg in South Africa, or to Dar-es Salam in Tanzania, or to Cairo in Egypt, Northern Africa. There is nothing wrong if we capture the West African sub-region and be in the forefront of linking our people on the West Coast. It is an ambitious dream but that is the kind of spirit with which I have come to take up this assignment,” he said.
His dream, he said, may not be achieved unless the Nigeria Railway Act 1955 is amended. He added that the proposal before the National Assembly would be followed up, to ensure that an amendment that can reshape the over 100-year-old corporation is carried out.
“We are prepared to make the railway successful. We are ready to begin the process of unbundling the corporation; and just like the hurricane that we all saw when the electronics media was privatised or when telecommunications was unbundled, we are going to witness same in the railway sector.”
Tukur said he would ensure the participation of private investors in the railway, noting that this would not occur until a legroom is provided for them to operate.
“There are immense opportunities in the railway. When we finish with the amendment before the National Assembly, we would have created the opportunities for profitable investment in the sector. We have got to create a space for the private sector to participate. With the successful track record of this management in the past, the private sector would be willing to participate in this sector,” he addded.
But Tukur’s dreams risk being dashed by the poor state of rolling stocks available for the use of the corporation and a low staff morale. Other factors are corruption, ineptitude, and officialdom that have made the it difficult for the corporation to shed its toga of a federal corporation rather than a company primed for efficiency and profitability.
The trains servicing the transportation needs of 170 million Nigerians run on a narrow gauge, a colonial heritage that is worn in many parts, forcing the trains to operate at almost a quarter of installed capacity. This is said to be responsible for the high rate of derailments.
The NRC still uses decrepit locomotives, shabby cabins, worn coaches and wagons. NRC has, on its fleet, 84 locomotives, 800 wagons, and 170 coaches. Of this, 29 locomotives, 250 wagons and 120 coaches are in working condition.
About 550 wagons, 50 coaches and 55 locomotives are in various obsolete stages.
President-General of the Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR) Comrade Raphael Okoro urged Tukur to boost workers’ morale by acceding to their demands on enhanced welfare packages.
He sought the employment of more workers to strengthen the workforce, the dearth of which has stressed the workers whose strength he put at less than 1,000 across the country.
Okoro said a transformed railway would remain a mirage unless the management addressed fundamental issues relating to workers’ welfare.
Another worker, who pleaded not to be named, urged Tukur to improve workers’ welfare. “Our morale is at its lowest ebb. Many of us are working under severe environment, an improvement on the condition of service would boost the morale of the workforce,” he said.
Corruption, stealing and selling of the corporation’s scrap stocks by workers, such as the case recorded in its Enugu station last month, are part of the problems of poor remuneration. There is also the need to make workers stop seeing the corporation as a federal institution, but as a company set up to make profit from its investments.
