New Telegraph

Nigeria’ll capture landlocked nations’ shipping traffic with Kano-Niger rail line, Experts say

As the controversy trailing the $1.95 billion rail line project recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) continues, port industry operators have said that the most important role the project will play when completed is connection of Niger Republic and other landlocked African nations to the Nigerian seaports. PAUL OGBUOKIRI reports

 

Issue

 

 

The approval recently by the Federal Executive (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari of a $1.9 billion rail project from Kano to the Niger Republic has come under public scrutiny as Nigerians have questioned the rationale behind the project.

The proposed rail line project will link Kano-Dutse-Katsina-Jibia and Maradi in the Niger Republic. Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation, told journalists at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that the rail line when completed is expected to aid the transportation of crude oil.

 

Special Assistant to the President on Media, Garuba Shehu disclosed that an agreement was reached between Nigeria and the Niger Republic in 2015 for the Kano-Katsina-Maradi Corridor Master Plan (K2M).

 

According to him, both nations agreed to build a rail line to the “border town of Maradi,” noting that Maradi is the largest city in the Niger Republic and the administrative centre of Maradi Region and seat of the Maradi Department.

 

The question being asked is why the Buhari Administration is rushing to extend a railway line to the Niger Republic while the existing railway lines across Nigeria have been a work in progress because of poor funding?

 

The public feeling is that this is obviously a misplaced priority. It is also believed that President Buhari is using the about $2 billion rail projected to be financed with a loan from, is to reconnect with his kit and kins in the old Daura Emirate who are now in Niger Republic.

 

Trade Union Congress (TUC) in a recent statement queried the rationale behind the project, saying the Federal Government has not been able to revitalise the moribund Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC) under a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangement it announced more than seven years ago.

 

“Why is it that noting concrete has happened in that regard? The country’s railway system still remains decadent and there is little in the horizon to show that government has mustered the political will to revamp the rail system.”

 

The said with the exception of the muchflaunted Lagos-Kano railway system, the Eastern rail line from Port Harcourt through Enugu to the North remains moribund. Nothing is being done about this very strategic rail line.

 

Evacuation of crude oil from Niger to Katsina refinery

 

Not done with the ethnic consideration being the overriding objective of the rail line, it has been disclosed that the railway will connect the ongoing 150,000 barrels per day Katsina Refinery to the oil fields of Nigeria Republic. The $2 billion private sector-driven petroleum refinery is facilitated by Niger Republic.

 

The refinery, billed for completion in 2021, would have the capacity to produce 150, 000 barrels per day but Niger Republic produces just produces 13,497 barrels per day, though it holds 150,000,000 barrels of proven oil reserves as of 2016, ranking 60th in the world and accounting for about 0.0 per cent of the world’s total oil reserves of 1,650,585,140,000 barrels.

Nigeria to build Kano-Niger Republic rail line with Chinese loan

 

In a statement titled “Rail construction to Niger Republic: What for?” the TUC stated that by this latest move it has become clear managers of the country have ulterior and sinister motives. The statement was signed by the TUC President Comrade Quadri Olaleye and its Secretary- General, Comrade Musa-Lawal Ozigi.

 

It reads: “The Congress is not averse to development. Constructing rail lines to Kano, Katsina and Dutse is understandable; but why extend it to Niger Republic? “Why should we borrow from the IMF, World Bank and China to build a rail line to Niger Republic?

 

Is there something this government is not telling us? “How could the Federal Government come up with such an idea in a country where potable water has become a luxury; right to electricity is regarded as a taboo for an average citizen, roads have become death traps and our health facilities lack malaria drugs?

 

That sum – $1.96 billion which government is borrowing from China to build rail line for another country when exchanged at the rate of N380 per dollar is almost N800 billion. This can do a lot in the economy.

 

“According to a report from the Debt Management Office, Nigeria’s total debt rose to $79.5 billion (N28.63 trillion as of the first quarter of 2020), and we want to another debt just to build a railway into another country (Maradi, which is about 52 kilometers from Jibia, Nigeria’s border town with Niger Republic).

 

“Debt servicing gulps trillions of naira yearly. News had it that Nigeria’s sovereignty is at stake if the country fails to pay China! How could the Federal Executive Council (FEC) accept such now? Or, has the Niger Republic annexed Nigeria?

 

“Government has not completed the road that connects Nigeria with other Western African countries yet the President Buhari-led administration approves the construction of a rail line to Niger! “All we are saying is that charity begins at home!

 

This is not the time for profligacy and licentious spending; the government must manage our lean purse prudently,’’ the statement said.

 

Nigeria to become import/export hub of Niger

 

However, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, at different media events marshaled points to justify the railway plan. The information minister, while speaking on a live television programme in Abuja, said the rail extension “is intended for Nigeria to take economic advantages of import and export of Niger Republic, Chad and Burkina Faso, which are landlocked countries.”

 

Mohammed said contrary to disinformation by some commentators on the rail extension project, the decision was taken in the economic interest of Nigeria. The minister explained: “I think there has been a lot of disinformation and total lack of information over that linking of Lagos, Kano, Katsina railway to Marradi.

 

The wisdom behind it is that Niger, Chad, and Burkina Faso are all landlocked, meaning that they do not have access to sea. “What this means is that most of their imports and exports have to go through neighbouring countries’ seaports like Cotonou in Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana.

 

Because we do not have a road infrastructure that will encourage Niger Republic to use our seaports, we believe that we will be able to take over their imports and exports with the rail linkage.

 

“The simple reason, therefore, is to strengthen the economy of Nigeria. For now, Niger Republic use the seaports of Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana and the exporters go through the stress, challenges and time of being on the road from Cotonou, Lome or Accra to their country. “But by the time we link them from Katsina to Marradi, it will be easier for us to take over the business.

 

“There is nothing like territorial expansion, it is purely economic, we are taking advantage of the proximity and efficiency of rail system.”

 

Nigeria could regain Niger transit-cargo

 

Speaking with journalists on Thursday in Abuja, Amaechi said Chad and Niger have abandoned Nigeria and gone to countries like Benin Republic because they have infrastructures such as rail lines and deep sea port to import their goods.

 

The minister lamented that Nigeria is the only country in West Africa that does not have a single window in clearance of goods at the port. He said the corruption in the system made it impossible for Nigeria to adopt the single window.

 

“Currently, Niger Republic, Chad and others have abandoned the Nigerian market. A  They do not use our seaports again,” he said. “They go to countries like Benin Republic and they are growing the economy of those people and we do not have deep seaports in Nigeria. Benin Republic is the first to build a deep seaport in Nigeria.

 

“Nigeria is the only country in West Africa without a single window which allows the clearance of goods on the same day of arrival. Nigerians are now importing through Benin Republic, Lome and Ghana because they have a single window.

 

“The huge corruption in the system has made it impossible for us to adopt the single window. It is this government that is trying to this and for the past two years, this has been impossible.

 

“We are not competitive for two reasons. Our Police checkpoints from Lagos to Kano, Kano to Maradi. If we are going to be competitive like others, then we must have the same infrastructures that they have. With trains, there are no checkpoints thereby making the movement of people and goods faster than the road.

 

Also, Maradi is just a border town not like it is deep into the town. “The Niger government is not contributing to the project and they do not need to do so. We have to also provide the same infrastructure that makes them go to other countries for business.

 

Those countries already have the access and that is why Niger can go there go there for business.” Amaechi said the transportation ministry has been able to curb ticket racketeering on the Abuja-Kaduna route. He added that the airports across the countries were well maintained and that the rail project has created over 200,000 temporary jobs.

 

Last line

 

Speaking in separate interviews with Sunday Telegraph at the weekend, the President Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Iju Tony Nwabunike; the Executive Secretary/ Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr. Hassan Bello and the President of the Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, they all said that if the project is realized, Nigeria would certainly recapture the multi-billion naira Niger Republic, Burkina Faso and Chad transit traffic which Nigeria has lost to the neighbouring countries because of poor infrastructure.

 

Nwabunike added that the move is a masterstroke as Benin Republic is already building its own rail line to Niger. “It is a competitive market, it is either you compete or die,” he said.

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