By Olu Fasan

ROTIMI Amaechi, Minister of Transport, was once asked whether enough people would use the passenger trains being built by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. Replying, Amaechi said that heightened insecurity on the roads, characterised by incessant kidnappings and killings, would force Nigerians to turn to the trains. 

The statement was an indictment of his own government, an admission that the Buhari administration had abandoned responsibility for ensuring security on Nigerian roads. Amaechi was simply telling Nigerians: “The government can’t protect you on the roads. You’d better use the trains.”

But the statement also created expectations about the safety of rail transport in Nigeria; it implied that while travelling by road is unsafe, travelling by rail is safe. Indeed, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, recently made that point explicitly. In a statement on March 28, he said: “We are proud that Nigerians can travel by rail in total comfort and safety.” 

That was, of course, a reckless utterance that raised false hopes! For just a few hours after Lai Mohammed’s statement, on March 28, terrorists attacked a Kaduna-bound passenger train from Abuja. Having blown off the train’s electrical system and derailed the train with explosives, the gunmen opened fire on the trapped passengers. 

The dastardly attack left eight people dead and more than 26 injured, with several abducted. Among the dead was Dr. Chinelo Megafu, a young dental surgeon, whose promising future was cut short prematurely!

So, then, while it is true that deepening insecurity on the roads forced Nigerians to use the trains, it is not true that travelling by rail offers Nigerians “total comfort and safety”. In fact, abandoning road for rail now seems like, as the saying goes, jumping from frying pan to fire! 

Sadly, the March 28 Abuja-Kaduna train attack was not an isolated incident. Just six months ago, there was a near-fatal attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train that derailed it. And there have been several other train derailments. There was also the embarrassing case of a Lagos-Ibadan train that stopped abruptly on March 10 after “running out of diesel”, leaving the passengers stranded in a remote location, potentially exposed to armed bandits and kidnappers. So, neither road nor rail offers normal travel safety and security in Nigeria. 

Nor, indeed, is travelling by air. For instance, two days before the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, bandits raided Kaduna International Airport, during which two personnel of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, were killed, and several other workers were abducted. With the daredevilry of the terrorists, and the evil-mindedness of their political sponsors and financiers, who can rule out aircraft hijackings and hostage-taking in Nigeria? 

Of course, travelling by road, rail or air is not 100 per cent safe anywhere in the world. But Nigeria faces an exceptional problem: its government is not working. Ignore spin-doctors like Lai Mohammed, the truth, supported by international indicators, is that Nigeria has one of the worst and most ineffectual governments in the world – a government that can’t secure the lives and property of its citizens, a government that can’t provide basic services, a government that, put bluntly, can’t get anything done beyond borrowing and spending money and awarding contracts for white elephants projects.

Think about it. What’s the usefulness of the road, rail and air transport infrastructures the Buhari government is building when they are like dens of death, unfit for purpose? The highways are ungoverned spaces, the trains are easily derailable by bandits and the airports are unsafe. Recently, some newspapers reported that the newly commissioned terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport is so badly designed, so structurally defective, that it’s not operable or viable. Why would any country find itself in that shameful pickle?

Truth is: Nigeria is a rudimentary country whose government is mediocre and dysfunctional, but pretends it can run advanced transport systems. For instance, in a bid to secure a “legacy” of “infrastructure revolution”, President Buhari is building road, rail and air transport infrastructures with massive Chinese loans and manpower. But his government lacks the sophistication to ensure the Chinese deliver the projects to optimal standards, and the competence to run, maintain and secure the transport infrastructures. 

Two weeks ago, just before the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, the World Bank published an article titled: “Successful infrastructure projects require efficient governance”. Ian Hawkesworth, the author of the article, argued, based on case studies, that “weak governance is the main impediment to efficient, effective and sustainable infrastructure services”. Can anyone, looking at Nigeria, disagree with that empirical analysis?

I mean, running a railway system and airports requires first-class intelligence and safeguarding to protect passengers and staff. But where is the targeted and actionable intelligence in Nigeria or the willingness to act on available intelligence? 

Where is the aerial technology to protect rail and air travellers? And why is no one ever held responsible for dropping the ball when something like the Abuja-Kaduna train attack happens?

Last week, France sacked the head of its military intelligence, General Eric Vidaud, for failing to predict the Russian invasion of Ukraine, whereas his American and British counterparts did. In Nigeria, heads are not rolling for poor intelligence and failure to heed intelligence on the Abuja-Kaduna train attack. 

Yet, accountability is the lifeblood of good governance. Then, what about safeguarding? If you travel on any London train, the first message you will hear is: “For your safety and security, CCTV cameras are operating on this train.” 

But, in an angry rant after the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, Amaechi said his “colleagues” rejected his request for approval to buy “digital security equipment” for the tracks, adding: “I warned that lives would be lost, now lives are lost”. But who are the cabinet refuseniks? And where was President Buhari on whose desk the buck stops? Surely, this smacks of a shambolic government where rot starts from the top. With such government, it’s little wonder Nigerians can’t travel safely on road, railor air!