Concession of railway not way forward, Railway Union tells FG
NAN-H-64
Railway
By Taiye Elebiyo-Edeni
Abuja, May 23, 2017 (NAN) Mr Raphael Okoro, the President of Africa Railway Workers Union (ARWU), says concession of railway transportation in Nigeria is not the way forward in reviving the sub-sector.
Okoro made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him, many African and Europeans countries had tried railway concession in the past; they never succeeded because railway is capital intensive.
He said that for railway to be functional and revived in the country, there should be adequate rolling stocks; periodical maintenance of tracks.
“Concessioning or privatisation has never helped any country in Africa or Europe. Many countries have tried it and 98 per cent of it failed, only few got it right.
“Knowing the nature of the country, I don’t think it will go well, because some administrations tried it in the past but after looking at the pros and cons, it was dropped.
“The railway workers have already told the government that the only way the sub-sector can be revived is, if there is adequate rolling stocks; maintenance of tracks.
“Railway all over the world is capital intensive and there is no way, a single company can fund it.
“General Electric (GE) is known in building rolling stocks like locomotives and coaches.
“GE has not run train anywhere in the world; we are not seeing them like those who are going to take us to the promise land.
“Concession is not the way forward to revive the rail system,” he said.
He said that if GE were to run the rail operations for 30 years, the Federal Government should look at all the details in the agreement which should not be rushed.
Okoro, however, said that GE promised to bring 20 locomotives into the country, saying “what will 20 locomotives do, South Africa has the best rail system in Africa with 1,300 locomotives running”.
He said that Nigeria did not have up to 15 serviceable locomotives; the 25 locomotives purchased during Abacha administration were refurbished ones that never lasted for four years.
The president urged the Federal Government to adequately fund the sub-sector and monitored the money injected into it.
According to him, new locomotives engines and coaches should be purchased from Japan or Germany and not china.
He said that new locomotives engines had a life span of 50years while the refurbished ones could not last for more than four years.
He, however, said that only South Africa and Ethiopia had good railway systems because their railway systems were being funded by their governments.
He said that Ghana and Kenya had also tried concession and abandoned it after some years.(NAN)
TY/MO/AFA
Edited by Morayo Omolade/Felix Ajide