Hope for a Lagos to Calabar rail line, considered the most viable transport network in the country, was raised as Commissioners for Transport from 17 states of the South-West, South-East and South-South met in Calabar recently to initiate discussions on the construction of the rail lione, also known as the West-East Railway.  The meeting which was convened by the BRACED Commission  was attended by Commissioners for Transport, Special Advisers and senior transport officials from  the Southern States. BRACED is an acronym for Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibm, Cross River, Edo and Delta.

According to the Director-General of the Commission, Ambassador Joe Keshi, the meeting was convened against the backdrop of the conclusions of the last two South-south Economic Summits during which  the need for the expansion of the national rail network in the country to include the West-East rail line from Lagos to Calabar was emphasised.  The Lagos-Calabar rail will traverse the south-west, south-east and the south-south.  Such a rail line, it was disclosed, will equally meet the aspirations of the south-west which had also indicated the desire to build a rail line connecting the region.

It was however revealed at the meeting that linking the south-west aspiration to a rail line that runs through south-east to the south-west remained the most viable, profitable and sustainable railway route in the country.  This followed an axle road study conducted by the Federal Ministry of Transport in 2008 which showed that the highest road traffic in Nigeria was between the east and the west, thereby justifying the establishment of the east-west rail line.  More importantly, this made it imperative for a meeting of minds among the seventeen southern states and the necessity to forge a common front to engage the Federal Government which under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 oversees the development and construction of railways in Nigeria.

In the Communiqué issued after the meeting which was also attended by railway experts, representatives of the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the meeting recognized the importance of expanding  railway development in Nigeria to include the West-East rail line as part of the national development agenda to improve mass transportation in Nigeria.

It noted that the west-east railways, traversing three zones and seventeen states was the most viable, profitable and sustainable rail line in the national rail network and would change the economic dynamics of the concerned regions when constructed.  Noting that Nigeria’s vision 20:2020 aspirations could be seriously hampered without a modern transportation system which includes the railways, the communiqué called on the Federal Government to create the enabling environment that will encourage private sector investment in railways development in Nigeria and urged the 17 southern Governors to open up urgent dialogue with the Federal Government on the necessity to include the east-west railway in the national railway development agenda.  It appealed to the Federal Government to base all discussions on the development of railways in Nigeria on sound economic considerations rather than on political sentiments as this could make the development of the sector unattractive to investors.

Keshi said: “The three zones constitute the busiest commercial belt of the country. A rail line linking them would aid easy movement of services and goods especially petroleum products (the mainstay of the national economy), farm produce both for export and for local consumption. The contiguous nature of the 17 states would translate to faster movement of personnel across skills the states”.