Aderonke Oni | 10 April 2025
https://www.thecable.ng/nrc-suspends-warri-itakpe-rail-operations-over-train-engine-failure/
It really gets curiouser and heart breaking.
This is the kind of knee jerk reaction of a railway operator lacking commercial responsiveness to its markets. It is perhaps the only option available to it having boxed itself into a cul de sac through its incompetence, maladministration, and incoherent business strategy.
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. In which case, 72 hours may not be sufficient to address it.
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. It may be why a replacement could not be provided to haul the broken down train to its destination. Instead the statement by the NRC that, it “..swiftly arranged for the safe evacuation of all passengers via road transport with adequate security presence.” would appear rather curious and inconsistent with the testimonies of the stranded passengers featured in some reports. The NRC statement also said, “Passengers were guided off the affected train to waiting cars approximately 500 meters from the track.” Surely not the same passengers that were alleged to have trekked for 3 hours in the Kogi forest.
It is also quite remarkable that the only available means of evacuating passengers was by road and not a replacement train service which points to the inadequacy of rolling stock provision. Clearly they do not have enough engines operating on that line and their operations planning must be like a train wreck. It is the surest admission of defeat that you literally hand your business over to the competing road sector. But herein lies the travesty. Whether trains run or don’t run, the salaries of the NRC staff get paid , and the business won’t be wound up because it is underwritten by you and I. The incentives to perform efficiently are non existent as the staff are not equipped or resourced adequately. You visit the terminal facilities in Itakpe, and weep as they are not fit for purpose, not even to keep animals. There are not enough conveniences and open defecation is common and if you wander into the surrounding bushes for emergency relief, you could step in human excrement. Even the toilets on the trains were apparently not functioning and the stranded passengers had to go in the bushes. This in the year of our Lord 2025!? How can this be on a service thats barely 5 years old thats never operated at full capacity? What does it take for the NRC to treat its customers with a modicum of dignity? These same NRC managers that travel abroad regularly and see their railways?
Sadly this story is not a one off nor an exception. About a week before this incident and, on this same Warri-Itakpe alignment, same train broke down leaving passengers stranded in the forest (https://fij.ng/article/second-scariest-day-of-my-life-passenger-spends-hours-in-unknown-forest-after-warri-itakpe-train-fail/), while a Lagos-Ibadan train ran out of fuel in the middle of the forest (https://youtu.be/iYCIMUsZxKA?si=w99OmtMV0_IF_z8R).
Also, a Kano-Lagos train was reportedly stuck in the forest around Zaria for days with passengers on board (https://fij.ng/article/passengers-spend-2-days-in-the-bush-as-train-breaks-down-between-kano-and-lagos/). Same is known to have occured on the Kaduna-Abuja service (https://guardian.ng/opinion/the-embarrassing-train-breakdowns/).
Yet, this is by no means an exhaustive listing of the NRC’s failing of its customers (and shareholders). If we do not unbundle this blundering corporation NOW so that those with capacity and competence can step in, as well as create an independent railway regulator that would enforce minimum standards, we may end up in a permanent shut down AGAIN