I never knew railway transport still existed in Nigeria – Amaechi

The Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, has stated that he never knew that the railways means of transportation still existed in Nigeria.

Amaechi made this remark on Tuesday when he and other officials of the ministry toured facilities of the Nigeria Railways Corporation, NRC, in Lagos.

He disclosed the intention of the Federal Government to concentrate on building standard gauge railway lines that would be beneficial to the country’s status as a developing economy.

His words: “In fact, I think we have a problem; most people don’t believe that the railway transport is functioning in Nigeria. I didn’t even know, until I started this tour, I never knew that the railway was functioning, it was even from his (MD’s) speech that I learnt that there are some coaches or services that go to Kano or Port Harcourt or elsewhere.

“The federal government will concentrate on standard gauge of the railways, because it is critical that Nigeria becomes one of the countries founded on standard gauge. The only time I had seen railways (trains) or the coaches was one or two days in Lagos, and I thought it started from the beginning of Lagos to the end of Lagos.

“So we need to make people become more aware that the narrow gauge is working, and that people can still use it to travel around that country. There was a joke somebody told me that it takes three days to reach Kano from Lagos on the narrow gauge, and when I asked the managing director of NRC, he said no, it takes one and half days; I said: ‘what’s the difference between three days and one and a half days?’ So that is why the government has to re-emphasize on the need for the construction of the standard gauge to help boost the economy,” the minister stated.