Railways: 60 years of neglect haunting Nigeria – Opeifa

• NRC boss says Tinubu’s rail policy offers new hope

Nigeria lost a critical sixty years of rail development due to consistent government neglect, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Dr. Kayode Opeifa, has revealed.

In an interview on The Exchange Podcast, hosted by Femi Soneye, Dr. Opeifa painted a stark picture of the nation’s rail history, comparing its stagnant 4,000 km network to South Africa’s 35,000 km.

Dr. Opeifa traced the roots of the current infrastructure deficit to a prolonged period of inaction. “For 60 years after 1912 we built nothing, we did nothing,” he stated, highlighting that from 1962 to 2000, no significant rail development occurred. This stagnation occurred while other nations advanced from narrow gauge to standard gauge, high-speed rail, and even Maglev technology.

The NRC MD credited the Obasanjo administration with awakening to the need for rail modernization in 2002, an idea initially proposed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the 1970s. However, he suggested that even this effort lost momentum after its initial phase, until a more recent renewed focus under subsequent governments.

The single most significant policy change, according to Dr. Opeifa, was the 2023 constitutional amendment that moved rail from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List. This move effectively allows state governments, local governments, and the private sector to invest in and develop rail infrastructure, breaking the federal monopoly.

He cited the example of Lagos State, which was previously “frustrated by the federal government” in its efforts to develop intra-city rail lines like the Red, Blue, Green, and Purple lines. “Now nobody can frustrate anybody,” Dr. Opeifa declared, signaling a new era of sub-national rail development.

The NRC boss outlined a three-pillar framework for successful rail development: statutes (laws and regulations), structures (implementing agencies), and processes (operational guidelines). He emphasized that with the law now amended, the focus must shift to creating the right structures and processes at both federal and state levels.

He confirmed that not less than six state governments, including Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, and Borno, are now actively developing their own metro rail plans, having been empowered by the new legal framework. This decentralized approach is expected to accelerate the pace of rail infrastructure rollout across the country.

The Federal Government is also complementing this by preparing a new National Rail Master Plan, which Opeifa indicated is ready for launch. This master plan aims to connect all states of the federation with national rail lines, a project he described as critical for national integration and economic development.

Opeifa expressed optimism, stating that with the right policies in place, many states could commence rail construction by 2026.