REVEALED: The Facts Behind $2.2b Lagos-Ibadan Rail Project And Amaechi’s Role

MICHAEL AKINOLA

Recent reports about the proposed 560 km standard gauge railway line to be rehabilitated and constructed in Ghana by the China Railways Construction Corporation with cost put at $2.2 billion have once again brought to the fore the criticism of Nigeria’s ongoing 146 km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Railway Line put at the same contract cost.

The cost for the Lagos-lbadan rail line has therefore been viewed by critics as exorbitant, compared to the costs of the project being proposed in Ghana.

But Henry Djaba Jnr, the MD of Lakeland Group, the local content partners of CRCC, as well as some insiders at the Nigeria’s Ministry of Transport, said the comparison being made in some quarters is unfair.

According to Djaba, he argued that there is no basis for comparing the differences in the costs of the projects, in view of the circumstances under which each contract was reached by each country.

On account of this misinterpretation of the way the two countries negotiated the railway line construction deals, it seem political mischief makers are attempting to use it to tarnish the image and reputation of the immediate former Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, using the misplaced comparison of the two countries rail deal for political purpose.

Insiders at the Transportation Ministry disclosed that it is wrong to put the blame of the high cost on Amaechi’s table since the contract was actually negotiated during the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

“It is unfair to now criticise Hon. Amaechi for the maladministration of the previous government of President Goodluck Jonathan, under whose watch the award of the contract for the Lagos-Ibadan Railway line was done at such very high costs and considered by many to be very noncompetitive,” explained a source within the ministry.

The source explained further that those critics have failed to understand that as with other infrastructural projects inherited by the Buhari government including Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Railway project was not started by Amaechi as the Minister but was inherited from administration from the Jonathan administration.

He noted that the focus of the Buhari administration has been to complete all abandoned or uncompleted projects of the previous government, rather than allow them to end up in the Courts, still abandoned or uncompleted, thereby continuing to deprive ordinary Nigerians of these vital infrastructures.

Nevertheless, the source explained that there are certain differences that could also be responsible for the huge gap in the contracts cost between the Ghana and Nigerian railway projects.

The first difference, according to the source, is that the Lagos-Ibadan rail project is greenfield and particularly challenging to construct, whereas, the Ghana projects are part-rehabilitation and part-full construction.

The other was the different funding arrangements which have impacted on the relative costs of the Nigerian project inherited as an uncompleted project by the former Nigerian government.

It will be recalled that following series of controversial reports on the comparisons of the two countries railway line contracts, Ghana’s Minister of Railway Development, Hon. Joe Ghartey, released a statement couple of days ago to give a clearer picture and correct position of Ghana’s arrangement on their railway line construction.

Ghartey explained that the Chinese Company has only offered to rehabilitate and construct the 560 km Standard Gauge Railway line in Ghana at the cost $2 billion, whereas another 340 km Standard Gauge Railway Line would be constructed by Ghanaian–European Railway Consortium (GERC) at a cost of $2.2 billion.

By contrast, the 146 km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Railway line was awarded at $1.5 billion, which is not three times the costs of the Ghanaian projects as many have been suggested.

The Managing Director of CRCC, Mr Dou Yisou, alongside Lakeland Group MD, Djaba and Ghana’s Minister Ghartey have since expressed their concern and displeasure over the inaccuracies and misrepresentations of how the two countries entered into their railway contracts, and how it is now being used in some quarters for political purposes in Nigeria.

They expressed disappointment at the ways some are using the differences in the costing of those projects to attack the Nigerian government, especially the immediate past Nigerian Transportation Minister, Amaechi.

“I’m really impressed with the minister (Amaechi)’s hands on approach. I work hard, but he works very hard. The Chinese consultants and contractors have said to me that the minister pushed them,” said Ghartey about Amaechi during his inspection tour of the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Line in March.

Another close source attributed the attacks to the handiwork of some enemies of Amaechi who are “doing all within their power to ensure that they discredit Amaechi so that he would not be reappointed as a minister in the next dispensation. But they will fail, President Buhari knows those who are useful to his government and he would do the needful at the right time.”