Our transport minister Saidu Alkali has surely got to use the current scarcity of petrol as an opportunity to push for an unprecedented railway expansion programme that will change Nigerian transportation irreversibly

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Nigeria currently has a paltry 4,000km of railway track. For a nation with a total land area of 923,768 km2, this is abominable and disgraceful. It shows we do not understand the dynamics of modern day travel

[2] Mr Alkali needs to visit China and tell the Chinese, who are now handling out railway network that they have to open manufacturing facilities in Nigeria. At the very least, they need to assemble carriages, engines, railway tracks, signaling equipment and sleepers in several factories across Nigeria

[3] Our transport minister needs to make it crystal clear to the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) that our railway network must cover at least 500,000 km by 2030 as Nigeria plans to move at least 50% of her road traffic on to rail by the end of the decade

[4] We need at least five high-speed lines including Lagos to Abuja, Lagos to Calabar, Lagos to Maiduguri, Calabar to Sokoto, Lagos to Kano and Calabar to Kano, running at minimum speeds of 250km an hour by 2030 as part of this programme

[5] We need a standard gauge national network that reaches every single one of our 774 local government areas. Traditionally, standard gauge trains run at 125km. That should be the minimum speed inter-city trains run at across Nigeria

[6] Every single one of our 36 state capitals must have an urban metro. In some cities, this could be a tram, while in some it could be light railway networks

[7] Lagos and Abuja both need underground networks similar to London Underground to back up any overland urban railway network

[8] China's CRCC must employ a minimum of 1m Nigerians at its factories across the country. Local staff must be trained on the entire production process from melting steel to providing service on trains

[9] In addition, the CRCC must take over one of our steel plants at Aladja, Oshogbo or Ajaokuta and turn it into one of their subsidiaries to supply their manufacturing plants

[10] Nigerian train coaches should have a maximum lifespan of 20 years. After this, they must be replaced. Our presence in other African countries will spur a re-supply industry whereby old trains are refurbished and exported across the rest of the sub-region

ayoakinfe@gmail.com