Kano-Lagos Rail Line: Transport Minister Directs Contractors To Review Construction Material

Senator Saidu Alkali, who serves as transport minister of Nigeria, has asked the Kaduna-Kano rail line contractors to review the construction material to ensure that there is no vandalization.

"We came to see by ourselves; seeing is believing. We can appraise the performance of the contractors of the Kaduna-Kano rail project," Minister Alkali said during his visit to Makarfi Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Sunday, Tribune Online reported.

The minister asked the contractors to use anti-theft clips rather than using regular metal clips to attach the rail track.

"You can see as we stand here, we started having some little observations in the clips they are using. We asked them to use anti-theft clips so that they cannot be easily removed," he said. "Although this project has a security challenge, we will collaborate with security to ensure we deliver the project to Nigerians in the shortest possible time."

It was disclosed previously by the project coordinator of foreign contractors, China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), Mark Zoe, that the project is 22.6 percent complete.

However, the contractors requested military collaboration during the project as two of the workers were kidnapped in the Makarfi Local Government area of Kaduna State.

CCECC was assigned this project in July 2021. The project was flagged off by former President Muhammadu Buhari. However, the work began in April 2022.

Public property vandalization is one of the problems in Nigeria. There have been government buildings, transportation vehicles, bus stops, railway tracks, oil pipelines, and more that have been vandalized. It creates additional financial burdens on the government for repairs and maintenance while it also disrupts public services.

The country is also dealing with the issue of oil thievery, which recently led to long queues at fuel stations in Lagos alongside a few more locations in South-Western states last month.

Aside from this, the unemployment rate in Nigeria increased by 37.7 percent last year and it will rise to 40.6 percent this year, as per the KPMG report.

On top of that, the federal government also shared earlier this month that there will be an increase of 40 percent in single-phase and three-phase pre-paid electricity meters.

Furthermore, the country is already going through a rough time as the president of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu removed the subsidy on fuel in May which led to an increase in fuel and food costs across the nation. Besides increased fuel and food costs, cab services like Uber also increased the prices in June.