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Daniel Adaji
The recent breakdown of a Warri-Itakpe train, which left passengers stranded for hours in a remote forest in Kogi State, has once again thrown the spotlight on the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s (NRC) persistent operational failures and decades-long mismanagement.
Rail way infrastructure expert Rowland Ataguba, Managing Director of Bethlehem Rail Infrastructure in London, described the incident as the result of “an incoherent business strategy. No more, no less.”
Speaking with Pointblank News on Wednesday, he accused the NRC of repeatedly failing in its core mandate despite years of public funding and government backing.
“When we say to government to stay out of things it lacks capacity for and to unbundle the NRC, some argue that they can run the railway well, as long as they get more money_ ” Ataguba said.
“They keep getting more money and they keep embarrassing our country, wasting our money and endangering the lives of our citizens,” he added.
On April 9, passengers onboard a Warri-Itakpe train were forced to walk for more than three hours after the train broke down in an isolated area with no mobile network coverage.
Passenger accounts directly contradict the NRC’s claim that it had swiftly evacuated them by road with adequate security.
In its statement, the NRC said passengers were “guided off the affected train to waiting cars approximately 500 meters from the track.” But viral videos and testimonies suggest otherwise.
“The NRC gets away with it’s poor performance because it is its own regulator. This is why we must unbundle the NRC and separate regulation from operations,” Ataguba noted.
He also questioned the decision to suspend the entire operation instead of isolating the faulty engine.
“If an engine is bad, you take it out of service not shut down the entire operation. It suggests that there is a systemic technical problem. Knowing the NRC with mediocrity, one would not be surprised to find that there is only one functional engine operating that service — which would be a joke,” he said.
Ataguba criticized the 2020 commissioning of the Warri-Itakpe line, which was initially designed as a freight corridor.
“When this line was hurriedly commissioned in about 2020 the fixed infrastructure was not complete,” he said.
“Station buildings were not complete nor was the signalling and telecoms completed. A railway line without signalling is akin to driving a car with blindfolds on,” he added.
The expert also lamented poor maintenance, corruption, and racketeering in the system.
“When a business is operated by incompetent and corrupt civil servants, are you surprised that it is quickly run aground?”
The NRC’s shortcomings have become a pattern. Just a week before this latest incident, the same train broke down, leaving passengers stranded in the forest. Similar cases have been reported across other routes, including Lagos-Ibadan, Kano-Lagos, and Abuja-Kaduna.
Ataguba, who sits on the NRC Unbundling Committee set up by the Federal Government in 2021, said progress has been stalled by “a lack of seriousness in resolving the age-long poor performance of the NRC.”
He warned that without immediate structural reform, including the establishment of an independent railway regulator and opening up the sector to private operators, the country risks a total shutdown of the railway.
“This is why we must unbundle it now, ” he stressed.
The NRC has since suspended operations on the Warri-Itakpe line for 72 hours to conduct a full technical audit. The corporation said passengers affected by the breakdown are eligible for full refunds or ticket revalidation.
However, for many Nigerians, this is yet another example of a public institution that continues to operate with little accountability and at great cost to the public.