2011: Transport to a new Era

In this write-up, Felix Adewumi takes an in-depth look at the likely scenarios in the transport sector in 2011

Background

The year 2010 ended on a not too high note following some last minute changes in the transport sector.

There was a 12th hour changes of baton at the Nigerian Port Association (NPA) when Mr Omar Suleiman replaced Mr Abdulsallam Mohammed as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Port Authority coupled with the sack of Mr Temisan Omatsaye as the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) when he was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and replaced with Mr Ziakade Akpobolokemi

These two changes go a long way in causing a major upset in the transport sector and there are high hope that 2011 will usher in a wind of change.

NRC contract scam

2011 started abruptly as 2010 ended with the arrest of Engineer Adeseyi Sijuade, the managing director of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

The arrest followed a report sent to the EFCC by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) after an investigation by the SSS into allegations of manipulations in contract awards for the rehabilitation of the Nigerian railway lines.

The contracts under view concern the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri line. The tenders which were invited since March 2010 have not been awarded nearly a year after because of the alleged manipulations and corruption involving Mr Sijuwade to award contracts to predetermined companies connected to his family with no evident track record using fake documents and insertion of documents after bidding had closed in flagrant violation of the Public Procurement Act.

Sijuade was appointed in 2009 and with the contract scam rocking the corporation, many believe that 2011 will go a long way to determine the interest of the government in completing the rehabilitation project.

100 locomotives for rail transportation

With the hope of reviving the dwindling significance of the rail sector, late President Umaru Yar’Adua had in the 2009 budget, earmarked N8.3 billion to be spent on modernization of locomotive coaches and wagon as well as rehabilitation work and procurement of railway equipment in 2009.

While listing rail rehabilitation as one of the key project to be funded by the 2009 budget, the president stated that his administration remains steadfastly focused on its vision for Nigeria as encapsulated in the seven-point agenda and the vision 2020.

Realising the importance of following his promise with action, Alhaji Isa Bio, former minister of transport who was given the mandate to turnaround the fortune of the rail transport system in the country started an intense rehabilitation process in the sector had stated that the government will provide 100 locomotive engines before the end of the tenure of Yar’Adua in 2011.

Although Yar’Adua was not able to complete his tenure with his death in 2010 and Bio was also moved from the transport ministry to Sports Ministry, Goodluck Jonathan and Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman who succeeded them as President and minister were saddle with the mantle to complete the task

However, despite the promise of the minister to complete the purchase of 25 locomotives engines before the end of 2010, the year 2011 came with only five locomotives being shipped into the country.

Bio only succeeded in purchasing five locomotives before he was replaced with Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman during the demise of Yar’Adua and with only six month to the end the Yar’Adua/Jonathan administration, the target of 100 locomotives by 2011 is still far off despite the huge sum of money diverted into such project.

Change of Batons and effects

The transport sector has been going through several changes in leadership every year and those changes have a way of affecting the sector.

In the transport ministry, Mrs Diezene Allison-Madukwe was replaced with Bio in 2008 as the minister of transport, with Bio coming in, he started with a new agenda for the transport sector but was himself replaced by Suleiman in 2010.

In the Nigerian Customs Service, Hamman Ahmed was replaced by Bernard Shaw-Nwadialo as the Customs CG in 2009 after staying there within just a year while Nwadialo spent just three months before handing over to Abdullahi Dikko in 2009.

The Maritime sector was also not left out as Ade Dosunmu was replaced by Temisan Omatsaye as NIMASA director general in July 2009 with Omatsaye himself being replaced with Akpobolokemi in December 2010.

At the NPA, Abdulsalam Mohammed was recently replaced by Omar Suleiman as the Managing Director of NPA while Mr Adeseyi Sijuwade replaced Mazi Jetson Nwankwo at the NRC.

While all these changes was going on, there is still the fact that they have its effects on the transport ministry as each change of baton leads to a different change of plans and idea for the incoming sets.

Building the Ajaokuta Warri line and other rehabilitation project

With a tender sum to N31 billion to Messrs Julius Bergers (Nigeria) Plc and N2 billion for Team Consultant for the contract work of Ajaokuta-Warri rail line, and other rail work, the process of a rejuvenated rail system in Nigeria was expected to be really on track in 2010.

The scope of the Ajaoukuta-Warri project which initially was to cover the awarded contract of the completion of 22 km track distance left out of the 254Km Ajaokuta-Warri line has now been widened to accommodate the rehabilitation of the entire 254km of the Ajaokuta-Warri line.

There were also expectation of construction of six stations; reconstruction of undermined bridges and culverts; major remobilisation of the contractor to site and the security management.

There is also the rehabilitation contract of Lagos-Jebba which had been awarded to CCECC at the cost of N12.3 billion as approved by the Federal Executive Council (Fec) on October 7, 2009. The contract which was expected to be completed within 10 months is still ongoing.

Besides, there is also the contract awarded within the ambience of the holistic rehabilitation of the corporation such as the supply of 100 tones telescopic crane for the recovery of damage wagons and rolling stocks, lifting jacks and hydraulic jacks, coupled with the supply and installation of 100kva generating sets for mechanical workshop.

Rail concession

After an initial failed attempt to revitalise the rail system, the Federal Government under the tenures of former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Yar’Adua had shifted their minds on rail concession

The ministry of transport which announced the plan pointed out that there is need for modernization of the Nigerian Railway System which is still based on the prevailing technology at its inception early in the century.

According to the ministry, the needs are great, and the government is looking for investors.

There was much talk about the concessioning of railway sector in 2009. The activities of railway concessioning include remobilization of transaction advisers, electronic assets, register for NRC assets, concession project team, work plan for concession and re-structuring of the corporation.

The concession team was said to have completed negotiations with the transaction advisers and World Bank has issued “No Objection Certificate” for work to start off.

On the concessioning, update electronic registrar of NRC assets was also said to be completed in 2009.

According to laid-down plan, concession will be successfully carried out and completed on Eastern line by December 2010 while institutional and management restructure of the corporation will be completed in the first quarter of 2010, yet nothing has been heard about it.

Easing Lagos Traffic congestion

Giving the setup of the country, with Lagos being Nigeria’s most populous city, and becoming the centre of commercial and industrial activity, Traffic congestion has become a very daily thing, as vehicle moved at snail pace all over the State.

Movement in cities like Lagos is mainly road-based, either by private cars or rickety buses as statistics shows that there are 11 vehicles to every kilometres of road nationally while in Lagos there are about 222 vehicles to every kilometres and every efforts to solve this traffic debacle in the past had failed.

The Lagos traffic congestion has been linked to the activities of danfos and molues drivers who flout traffic regulations at will, pick up passengers in illegal places and abandon their vehicles when broken on the road to cause traffic snarl

The effect of this could be seen in the movement of goods and people in the country, causing significant waste of the city’s economic production resources

It is believed that with the arrival of the new locomotive engines and when the train is operational and effective in the country, it will be a great boost to the efforts at solving traffic congestion.

In 2010, analysis showed that a train which carry people from Okokomaiko in Lagos State to Marina carries a projected annual passenger capacity of 200 million people, while more than one million passengers could use the a train passing through Agbado to Marina daily.

It is an unrivalled fact that the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme, an initiative of Lagos State government and Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (Lamata), contributed greatly to the reduction of traffic as it was reported to have moved about 9.7 million people within the first 100 days of operation.

There has been the urgent need to redesign, expand and renovate the Nigerian railway into an efficient nationwide network serving both industrial and agricultural zones and facilitating development of the cash-crop economy in the hinterlands and a far-sighted approach is needed for dealing with the traffic snarls and urban sprawl in the new industrial and commercial zones across Nigeria.

Many had argued that if the country had only placed more emphasis to railway before, maybe the much sought solution to traffic congestion will have been finally found.

Looking ahead

Even thought the year 2010 had not been fulfilling for the transport sector, there is high hope that it has set a high target for itself in 2011.

Despite the drama being played out at the transport sector, the importance of the sector cannot be over emphasised.