I have spent the past weeks thinking of the problems of Nigeria. I have made copious iterations of solutions as regards the infrastructural deficit in Nigeria which needs a colossal amount of money to reduce. In fact Nigerian infrastructural neglect has become a black hole that nobody can fill and the shocking reality is that this hole keeps opening more holes for corruption. To put a figure to it, over 100billion dollars spending year- on- year for 30 years.
When I see the rail road projects we have done, at first I look critically by saying is it really worth the cost of the heavy loans and spending and what is the fraction frittered away in corruption? It has to be said because we see the cost of rail projects in other parts of Africa and the cost of this same project in Nigeria is many times higher. What is shocking for me is that we have taken close to 10 billion dollars in debt to run various rail projects only to have trains still breaking down between the Kaduna and Abuja route. I recently asked the Minister of Transportation how much is the cost per kilometer of rail track and he said he didn’t have the figure in his head. That got me thinking. I have further thought about the economic viability of the Kano to Maradi line and the cost of trade between Kano and Maradi. I dare ask again: should government be building rail lines?