An Opinion on the Kano-Maradi Railway Line… By Gary

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This will rank as the most outrageous and insane justification for rankling ethnicity as public policy by a Buhari quisling against the interest of the nation and his own people. Rotimi Amaechi can summon the effrontery to tell Nigerians that it makes economic sense to have Nigeria raise loans from China to be build a railway line from Buhari’s hometown, Daura, hundreds of miles to Maradi, inside Niger Republic. All at Nigeria’s expense and to be repaid, of course, with Niger Delta oil money by our children.

The likes of Amaechi (and apparently the NASS legislators who have appropriated the funds) see nothing wrong with Nigeria solely bearing the cost of developing a rail line in ANOTHER COUNTRY while our own people, especially his fellow Niger Deltans, do not yet have a rail line 57 years after independence.

Amaechi sees nothing with using his own people’s resources to advance Buhari’s pan-Fulani domestic and foreign policy agenda for which $5billion plus and lives have so been wasted prospecting for (the umpteenth time) crude oil in the far North. Under Maikantu Baru, the NNPC is also now fast-tracking the building of a new refinery (originally slated for Niger) in Katsina state to be fed from an oil pipeline in Niger Republic.

Doing these, they now say, is for Nigeria to have a market in Niger, consistently ranked as one of the poorest nations of the world. Seriously, Amaechi thinks all of us have a wishy-washy Uni-Port degree like he has and cannot discern what is really going on as Buhari and his men seek to recreate a Greater Fulani political and economic federation across colonial boundaries in the far North. Using Niger Delta oil resources before oil totally loses value and relevance in international trade.

On the domestic front, the nation is currently under siege from the influx of cattle-rustlers and armed herdsmen from Niger and the Fulani Diaspora as the Buhari regime has opened our borders for his kindred and their famished cattle to view Nigeria as a huge pasture for open grazing. The mayhem is steadily spreading from the Middle Belt to Nigeria’s Coastal Belt, heightening fears of ethnic conflagration. Despite unwavering opposition, Buhari’s preferred solution is to resettle the marauding Fulani pastoralists in the fertile lands of the Middle Belt and Southern states and in the process overturn the ethnic and demographic makeup of Nigeria’s indigenous communities.

Planting the Fulani in every region of Nigeria will, in just one generation, guarantee their perpetual political domination of the country as they will then easily meet the constitutional requirements for the Presidency without needing any ethnic alliance.

Mr. Amaechi know this: you will not be minister forever and we, your people, have a long memory.

 

SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, MUHAMMADU BUHARI, PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY OF KANO–KATSINA–JIBIYA–MARADI (NIGER REPUBLIC) RAIL LINE WITH BRANCH LINE FROM KANO TO DUTSE, 9TH FEBRUARY, 2021

I am delighted to preside over the groundbreaking ceremony for commencement of the construction of yet another vital transportation infrastructure.

2.​ The rail line that traverses the major commercial and administrative centre of Kano and passing through other economic hubs of the country including Kazaure, Daura, Katsina and up to the border town of Jibiya and the Niger Republic city of Maradi.

3.​ The cities of Jibiya and Maradi constitute a significant trading core between Nigeria and Niger Republic – a tradition dating back many centuries.

4.​ This vital infrastructure line will establish an end-to-end logistic supply chain in railway transport services between Northern and Southern regions of the country, reaching Nigerian southern ports of Lagos and Warri.

5.​ The entire route encompasses territory inhabited by close to 80 million people across 10 states of the country. This project has a branch line to Dutse the capital of Jigawa state to open up this corridor which is endowed with vast resources.

6.​ The Kano – Maradi rail line has been identified as a viable line that will significantly enhance the movement of passengers and freight to the hinterland especially raw materials from both agricultural and mineral resources for our industries.

7.​ The project, when completed, would serve import and export of goods for Niger Republic and other countries in the sub-region through Nigerian ports. The country would earn revenue through expansion of trade and commerce, while the people of Niger Republic will benefit from ease of transportation logistics at affordable cost in their import and export business.

8.​ The connection to Niger Republic through rail will also foster Trans-Sahara trade and contribute to the expected gains in the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.

9.​ The construction company handling this project, Messrs Mota-Engil Nigeria Limited is supporting knowledge and technology transfer by investing in the establishment of a learning Institution for Transportation and Railway Science. This is commendable.

10.​ Distinguished guests, this administration, in clear recognition of the challenges posed to our economic growth by absence of strong and effective infrastructure, has remained consistent in her effort at closing this gap. We have in the rail sector embarked on the completion of the 1,424 Kilometer Lagos – Kano rail line to join the one being flagged-off today for the country’s Western axis.

11.​ On the Eastern corridor of the country, the Port Harcourt – Enugu – Makurdi – Maiduguri rail line with branches to Owerri, Imo state and Damaturu, Yobe state have been awarded for reconstruction to include a deep sea port in Bonny Island and a Railway Industrial Park in Port Harcourt with the objectives of achieving a vibrant and functional railway infrastructure in the Eastern part of the country.

12.​ The Federal Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Finance have been directed to vigorously act on engagement and concluding financial arrangement with appropriate co-financiers to partner with the Federal Government for the development of the West – East Coastal rail line from Lagos to Calabar and linking Onitsha, Benin, Warri, Yenegoa, Port Harcourt, Aba and Uyo.

13.​ Furthermore, the contract for the important Central Railway traversing Itakpe – Baro – Abuja with connection to Lokoja and a new seaport in Warri has been signed and is expected to achieve appreciable level of completion during the tenure of this administration.

14.​ Distinguished guests, I believe, when all these initiatives of our Administration are realized, the country would have overcome the infrastructural deficiency in the Transportation sector.

15.​ Businesses will be able to take full advantage of availability of an affordable and effective transportation backbone that can transform industrial and economic activity to a higher level. I also enjoin our private sectors to invest and participate in the realization of these very promising economic opportunities.

16.​ I now have the honour to perform the groundbreaking ceremony for the Kano – Maradi standard gauge rail line and direct the Honourable Minister of Transportation to flag-off the project.

Thank you and God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.