Still waiting for the Lagos light rail

Last week, it emerged that the much anticipated $1.2 billion blue line light rail project ongoing on Lagos-Badagry corridor can no longer be completed by December 2016 as promised by the state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode last year.

It can be recalled that the Lagos light rail project had been in the works as far back as 2006. The rail system captured under the Integrated Rail Transport System was designed to link the major population and activity centres in Lagos state. The seven lines include: Red line from Agbado to Marina (31 kilometres long), Red Line extension (6 kilometres) to local and international wings of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Blue Line on Badagry Expressway from Okokomaiko to Marina via Iddo (27 kilometres), Green Line from Marina to the proposed Lekki Airport (26 kilometres), Yello Line from Otta (Ogun state)/MM Airport to Iddo (34 kilometres),  Purple Line – from Redemption Camp (in Ogun state) to Lagos State University, Ojo (60 kilometres, Orange Line – from Redemption Camp to Marina (42 kilometres), and the Brown Line – from Mile 12 to Marina (20 kilometres).

However, the huge financial outlay forced the Lagos state government to prioritise the project and begin with the 27-kilometre Badagry line running from Okokomaiko to Marina via Iddo. The contract was awarded to the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) in 2008 at the cost of $1.2 billion and was to be due in 2011. The World Bank also provided the funding for the project. However, in 2011, very little was accomplished. The completion was moved to 2013 and former governor Fashola promised that it would be completed in June 2013. However, that deadline was also missed. Another deadline for its completion was fixed for 2014, but that was also missed. Currently, only 16 kilometres of the 27 kilometres project had been completed.

The government is said to have cited difficulty in securing right of way and financial challenges as some of the reasons leading to postponement of the completion date.

This is in sharp contrast to Ethiopia, which made history by becoming the first sub-Saharan African country to have a light rail system, when, on September 26, 2015, it unveiled the 34 kilometre and 39 station Addis Ababa electrified light railway network. Unlike Lagos, Ethiopia began its own construction in 2012, four years after Lagos and at the cost of $475 million but completed it on record time. However, Lagos is still battling with its $1.2 billion 27 kilometre rail system eight years now with no completion in sight.

The Lagos State government must now do a self-introspection! If Addis-Ababa, with a population of just 5 million could be so pro-active to provide the inhabitants of the city with a fast, efficient, and modern transportation system to move approximately 600,000 people daily and decongest the roads, how much more urgent can the Lagos light rail system be, in a city with a population of over 20 million and which is synonymous with killing traffic jams and hold-ups that sometimes lasts 12 hours at a stretch?

The Lagos Light Rail project in many ways represents the terrible nature of public projects in Nigeria. Contracts are usually over-inflated, awarded to party or client members as rewards for loyalty and are poorly, if at all, executed. It also demonstrates the bankrupt nature of our political elite who do not even show enlightened self-interest.

We urge the Lagos state government to prioritise the rail project. The sheer man-hour lost daily in traffic is sickening. It is inconceivable to have a megacity without efficient system of transportation. We should, for once, move from mere propaganda and cliché to real action.