Lagos-Kano train service

The high, low points as FG struggles to revive railway system  

Recently, Mike Ochonma embarked on a six-day Lagos-Kano train tour. The experience he shares raises questions about the ability of government to return the railway system into a profitable, convenient and safe mode of transportation.

In December 2012 when Idris Umar, Nigeria’s minister of transport flagged-off the abandoned Lagos-Kano train service abandoned over seven years ago following the rehabilitation of the 1,128 kilometre distance, many interstate travellers welcomed it with optimism.

But barely seven months after that historic flag-off at the Ebutte-Metta Junction (EBJ) inside Nigeria Railway Corporation headquarters, Lagos, many are still anxiously watching and waiting with cautious optimism for such a day when train services in the country can be compared with other African countries among whom Nigeria is referred to as the continental giant.

The call to duty from my office to travel by train for an on-the-spot assessment of the resuscitated service made to embark on this 5-day journey that took about 100 hours. This first leg of the journey to Kano which commenced at 4.51pm (instead of 12noon) on Friday, July 19 ended Sunday July 21, with a return trip from Kano to Lagos terminus on July 22 (with 9.38am take-off time) and arrived Lagos Wednesday July 24.

The railway authorities cancelled the trip to carry out repairs on a portion of the rail where an accident involving a Kano-Lagos bound train had run into a truck that was abandoned on a rail track in Kakau area in Kaduna State.

With the Kano trip take-off time already 4hours 51mins late, the train, which had each coach locked to each other, released a deafening hoot that blasted and rented the air. As the train rumbled away in a into the thickly populated Mushin and Agege rail tracks that led us out of Lagos, it dawned on me that indeed the journey to the volatile northern part of the country had begun.

As the train pulled away from the hustle and bustle of Lagos city behind, the true beauty of the Nigeria’s landscape played out, with lush overgrown grasses brushing sharply and brazenly against the side of the locomotive as it travelled at top speed.

With frequent travel record to almost every continent of the world on official duties, I committed my journey into the hand of God, kissed my children that were asleep when I was leaving home that early morning, bade my wife goodbye while I solicited her intercession as this Kano trip by train was my first experience.

 Four hours at  Iddo Terminus

On that early Friday morning as early as 7.35am, the Lagos terminus was filled with passengers that flocked around the ticketing hall but there was no one to issue tickets to them till 10.59am after our reporter approached Abdulazeez Mohammed, station manager in charge of Iddo terminus to find out the reason for the delay in ticket sales for a 12noon trip with NRC official having the courtesy to address passengers who seemed to have been abandoned to their fate.

The dark complexioned slim Station Manager told passengers to sit down and that ticket sales would commence by 10am, but despite his assurances no one was issued any ticket long after people had struggled to queue up, but no officer was in sight to issue tickets until 10:59am raising questions as to the time consciousness of civil servants and the ‘Nigerian African time syndrome.’

It was also surprising to find out that tickets were issued to passengers with no passenger manifest in sight so that in the case of accidents, it would be easy to trace the identity the victims. Inside the Iddo terminal, there were very few seats to serve the multitude of prospective travellers who stood haplessly.

 Wheel spin between Oshogbo and Offa

We got to Abeokuta at 7.33pm, Ibadan 10.12pm and Oshogbo at 2.20am on Saturday yet at that unholy hour, under-aged children and aged mothers were seen hawking all kinds of goods at the train station. At this station, I saw passengers struggling and jostling to get inside the train and most of them were elderly women traders with several bags and baggages.

That scene alone strengthens Nigeria’s position as a country with a high level of child abuse. Less than 10 minutes into the commencement of our journey to Offa, I noticed a sudden shutdown of engine noise and all of a sudden, the 300 tons engine head started pulling all the 21 coaches at a 100 percent less speed than that of a millipede.

When our reporter asked one of the security officers drafted from the NRC Police Command what is the cause of the sudden development, he retorted “Ah my brother, we have to crawl like this until we get out of this situation. Any time it rains and the tracks gets waterlogged, it impedes free movement of the steel wheels as a result of the scratching effect until it is dried up again and the train returns to its normal speed. And if the train moves faster than the crawling speed, it will derail.”

It took the combined effort of some NRC staff to come down from the train anytime there is a wheel spin to pick stones and sand in order to lubricate the wheels for easier movement of coaches. At this point, I remembered telling my wife to commit my journey into prayers. I also recollected that Victor Obayagbona, a colleague of mine, had prayed for me Thursday night in the office prior to my departure. We got to Oshogbo at 2.20am and struggled to get to Offa station by 8.05am on Saturday as a result of the hitches.

Victor Evhadeh, the passenger beside me, was on his way to Kano as one of the newly posted anti-terrorist officers to resume duties in the troubled Northern region. He complained that he had almost spent the entire casual leave period given to him to travel to Lagos and get prepared for a new working life in the region. So to him, getting to Kano as soon as possible was crucial. Evhadeh was also a first-time passenger on the service just like me. He was also jolted by the wheel spin incident that prolonged an already delayed journey.

Patrick Ochea is a student of civil at the Federal University of Technology, Minna. He was convinced by his friend to take the train ride for the first time. Amarachi John is also an NYSC member who had just completed her orientation in Ede, Osun State. In her quest to save money to rent a modest accommodation in her new place of primary assignment, she was caught in between spending N4,500 by bus and paying N1,200 by train. Joy Agbemuda is a trader in textiles who said she travels by rail every fortnight to effect supplies at Mokwa in Niger State.

Joy frowned at the technical hitches which she said has become a regular occurrence. “This is what we have been seeing on these train journeys. Two weeks ago, a train returning to Lagos derailed at Mokwa causing us to sleep at Jebba because we couldn’t pass while the derailed train was blocking the tracks. Now we are stuck here. And don’t forget, this is supposed to be a 24-hour journey but due to these delays, sometimes for more than two days we are still on the road, subjecting people to unnecessary hardship.”

An elderly man in his 70s who simply identified himself as Azeez said he is a retired army officer but did not disclose his rank or surname said he was going to Kano to visit Al-Mustapha who was recently set free from incarceration in connection with his alleged involvement in the murder of Kudirat Abiola, wife of MKO Abiola. He advised government to closely monitor railway operations after rehabilitation. “From when you buy your ticket it is commotion, they lack organisation in every form,” he said.

With all the troubles that characterised the journey, we finally arrived Kano terminus at 3.10pm. Upon disembarking from the platform, one could easily notice the uneasy calm at the terminal. The only sign of activity were the vehicles marked with the state taxi colour of green and yellow that were picking and dropping passengers in and out of the station. The reason for this atmosphere of uneasy calm was at this time, no longer news.

The security situation discouraged me from going out of the Kano railway station and instead I settled for a low budget accommodation at a ridiculous rate provided by the 3-bedroom apartment inside the railway compound marked ‘The Railway Club’.

I was earlier told that the actual Railway Club directly opposite the terminal had been sold out in preference to the mosquito infested, lonely cream colour bungalow housing the Railway Club which have been marked as a no-go fun area by protesting youths early in the year. In the club, the food of anytime is sold, no music of any sort and sight of an alcohol is a punishable offence and it is even at one’s risk sleeping inside it as a guest. But I braved it because that was part of brief when I left Lagos.

On Monday morning July 23, it was time for me to get into the Lagos-bound train. To my surprise, initially, when I had wanted to travel to Kano, I had gone a day before to obtain my ticket at Iddo, but I was told that tickets are sold over the counter on the day of travel, but that was not the case at the Kano terminal. As early as 7am that morning, all the tickets have been sold out. It took the assistance of the Principal Traffic and Commercial Officer that managed to arrange First Class seat ticket for me.

At exactly 9.38am, the train roared off the Kano rail tracks as against the 4.51pm we departed Iddo, Lagos terminal two days earlier for a scheduled journey of 12noon. From the time we left Kano we did not experience any wheel slip-ups unlike our first experience nor did we get reports of any engine breakdown till we got to Offa station, Kwara State at 7.43am on Tuesday.

 Derailment as an ‘Act of God’

At the Offa Station, after waiting for departure for almost an hour, I sought to speak with the Station Superintendent (SS). Moments after, a dark-complexioned man with average height and a tinge of grey hair indicating stress of work shook hands with me and we exchanged pleasantries.

Upon my enquiry into reasons for the delay in our movement, the Offa SS who gave his name as Soji Ajala, popularly called SOJ by his colleagues, aged 49, with about 22 years working experience in NRC whispered to me that ‘An act of God had occurred’. When I told him that I didn’t understand what he meant by ‘an act of God,’ he put on a mischievous smile and replied: “An act of God is when there is a derailment on the rail track.” By this time, I learnt there was derailment by past 3pm the previous Sunday.

Derailment by simple definition in industry terms is when the wheels of the locomotives veer of the track. Most of the times, derailment could be result as of over speeding by the driver, bad (not over) loading in the cargo coach or when the wheels misses at sharp corners where there are clusters of railing over-lapping one another.

 Communication with passengers

When there was nobody from the station communicating with them after a long wait, I went back to SOJ to let him know the importance of making announcement to the already tired and stranded passengers and 12 minutes later he heeded my advice. His announcement went thus, “Dear passengers, we thank God for journey mercies so far. We are very sorry for the slight delay and wish to thank you for your patience. In the next 40 minutes, the train will commence its journey to Lagos”. But at last, the train blarred its hoot and departed at 12.49noon. We spent almost five hours in Offa because the cargo train derailed some kilometres after Oshogbo.

 Turbulence between Offa and Abeokuta

As the train left Offa, there was this unstable, dangling movement of the coaches on the twisty rail lines that lasted throughout our journey to Abeokuta at 9.11pm apparently suggesting that the driver is topping on his average speed of 60 kilometres per hour to catch up with the lost five hours in Offa due to the derailment tagged act of God by SOJ at Offa station.

Out of the 21 coaches, one can easily differentiate the second class with a predominantly green paint with a touch of white, while the first class seater and sleeper service come embedded in a combination of yellow, green background.

Five of them are meant to carry cargoes and one coach each for restaurant, bar and kitchen where alcoholic and soft drinks are served with blaring music that play non-stop. Inside the kitchen, passengers have a choice of rice, eba, semovita,rice and Indomie noodles with eggs to make passengers at N250 for plate round the clock.

For Josephine Fashe, a training consultant and mother of three travelling from Kaduna to Lagos on the 1st Class Seater service, “The railway mode of transport is a welcome development in Nigeria. Personally, I am glad to have it back on track. However, my experience so far has not been too pleasant for the following reasons: In terms of frequency, there is only one trip per week between Lagos and the northern part of the country.

“The above accounts for the overcrowding of the train and accounts for confusion between the different classes. The comfort in the 1st class is not guaranteed therefore, passengers hardly get value for their money. The toilet facilities are inadequate hence passengers’ health is being jeopardised. Inside the restaurant, quality of food is poor and expensive and the convenience of all passengers is not considered as the entertainment system was too noisy especially in the First Class area.

“I could go on and on but I just have to stop here as I believe that the Nigeria Railway is still trying to find its feet. I am on my third trip since revival of the rail system and will continue using it as a means of transportation.

My prayer is to see a railway of international standard whereby we will change from locomotive to gas. I am sure Nigerians will patronise the rail transport once they can get value for their money and will be ready to even pay higher fares for as long as there are improvements.”

 Security inside the coaches

Throughout the Lagos-Kano-Lagos train service, three police men that are not on uniform armed with guns were onboard, but what BusinessDay could not explain is the role of two tall young men without guns but had military camouflage handkerchief tied to their wrists. There was an incident on our way to Lagos when the team of policemen accosted four young boys for searching. They were being suspected of pocket-picking one Abdullahi Kazeem that boarded the train on the early hours of the morning.

While our journey to Kano had its constraints due to the wheel slip saga that prolonged our arrival time to Kano, the return leg to Lagos had its own troubles as well.

Dividing the First Class sleeper and seater coaches with the economy class popularly referred to as the Ajegunle are the ever busy drinking bar and modest restaurant which made it difficult for some of us to recline our seats to take a nap not even for a second throughout the 45-hour trip. In terms of security, every passenger is on his or her own because of the porous nature of adjourning coaches which made it difficult to differentiate the first class and economy passengers.

There was a case of a pregnant woman seaed close to me who wanted to urinate inside the already messed up toilet around 12.38am wee hours of the morning as can be seen in one of these pictures only to open the door to see two young men smoking inside it. Out of pity, I went to seek the intervention of the security men on duty, only to find them in deep sleep, and none of the NRC staff can be identified as the Coach Head to whom complaints can be made. Bottles of wine and beer flowed freely to both passengers and other NRC staff including security personnel.

 Filthy condition of toilet facilities

The convenience for passengers is another kettle of fish entirely. Bathroom signs are written in both English and Chinese indicating where the coaches were manufactured. Each of the steel toilets had 25-litre jerry can of water for flushing off excreta down into the rail tracks. For 60 passengers in a first class seater coach to make do with just 25 litres keg of water, hygiene conscious travellers instead opted to have their own sachets and bottles of water for use which could only serve to clean up and not enough to was down the sink for the next user.

 Passengers comfort lacking

Inside the First Class Seater, the air conditioners that came with the coaches have all given way to a newly installed one. There was only one lighting system still working along with a few ‘colonial fans’ that made noise than they could circulate fresh air. The air conditioners dropped water inside the first class cabin that at a point, my seat No. 16 was drenched with water from the air conditioner.

Wasiu, the operator of the plasma television set and DVD in the First Class seater did not help matters at all. First is the unsolicited noise generated from the high volume coming from the television, an irritation more than anything else.

Also, the operator was at liberty to leave the noisy TV to passengers who had already slept during the night while he retired to one of the sleepers to sleep. He would then resume very early in the morning to continue his usual practice of causing discomfort to helpless and tired passengers with the volume of the TV.

The economy-class passengers suffered more as a result of stench odours emitting from feaces, body sweats and vomit from passengers. In this section, one would find all manner of dirty looking and poverty stricken travellers whose preoccupation is not their comfort, but the need to arrive home safely.

And for passengers who feel inconvenienced, the bar and restaurant was a platform where both the first-class and second class passengers met to exchange pleasantries. Wilson, the bar boy is never tired of attending to customers to sell his assorted drinks.

 Occupation of Sleeper 

Out of the 16 sleepers available in just one coach, 50 percent of them have been occupied by the St John’s Ambulance (Medical team), Man O’War, ticket chequers and other NRC staff. It took official directive from a superior officer in Lagos headquarters through a telephone call to mandate Usman Aliyu Halidu, principal traffic officer and Pwaspo Caleb Kumsat, station superintendent and Dumola Oyeniyi, chief person booking agent to write a memo to St John’s Ambulance team to vacate their sleeper space for the three SURE-P team members who had earlier made bookings.

Commotion had earlier ensured at the terminus in Kano as the train service for 9am was delayed for 33mins due to insufficient provision of accommodation space in the First Class sleeper and seater coaches for some passengers who had booked a day before the trip only to find out that there was no provision for them.

Interestingly, the three gentlemen; two of them from Information Unit, and the Performance and Result departments of SURE-P and one from the National Planning were assigned to take a ride in the train and feel the pulse of passengers. All the loopholes are essentially due to lack of effective information channel between the Lagos headquarters and Kano office including other districts on how to manage their communication for public good.

 Medical attention by NRC’s St John Ambulance

The good side of the travel experience is that inside the coach was a two-man medical team (Oladimeji Fashola and Abiodun Davies) provided by the St John’s Ambulance team of NRC. Their duty is to attend to emergencies and minor medical situations like head and body aches that may happen to passengers during any trip including taking delivery of new born babies. In the case of major cases, the victim would be transferred to nearby hospital for proper medical attention. St John Ambulance is the brainchild of the British colonial masters.

 Lagos-Kano-Lagos

All through the journey from Lagos-Kano-Lagos, there was no official who offered any information as to why the train got stuck. Passengers speculated and were quite apprehensive, burdened specifically with the uncertainty of proceeding with the journey. At that moment, passengers continued to mill around in the coaches. While some passengers, apparently the non-Muslims used the opportunity to have their lunch and all kinds of soft and alcoholic drinks, our Muslims faithful held their Friday Jumat service while the journey lasted.

When I got out from the train to see if I could find any member of the technical crew to talk to me, I met another passenger name Abdulkareem Afiz whom I mistakenly took to be an NRC engineer accompanying the train. When I asked him why we were stuck, he got angry and began to tell me how he blamed himself for entering the train for the first time.

 Infrastructural decay 

If there is anything that is the greatest national shame for past administrations of the country about the moribund railway system in Nigeria, that common denominator is the sorry and deplorable state of infrastructure begging for attention.

This ranges from the old and desolate offices built by the colonial masters decades ago, abandoned locomotives and wagons that have turned into safe havens for all manner of animals and reptiles many years ago and obsolete equipment that are no longer in tune with current reality.

 Unhappy, disoriented workforce In some stations, when we stopped over during the day, may be as a result of derailment along the track, I never saw any railway worker seated in his or her office. Instead what I saw were either offices under lock and key with traces of cobwebs all over and in some cases groups of supposed railway workers murmuring in low tones about the poor condition they were daily subjected to by the management and government of the day whom they variously described as insensitive to their plight.