The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has chided the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) over its inability to evacuate consignment from the nation’s seaport to other parts of the country by rail years after the railways had been rehabilitated.
Recall that about two years ago, NRC and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) entered into strategic partnership aimed at evacuating containers from the Lagos ports to the northern parts of the country by rail where it was hoped that the development would impact more on the ports as well as ease congestion on the Lagos roads.
However, two years after, the dream is yet to be realized.
Speaking on the matter, the founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam regretted that, years after the railway route between the Lagos port and the northern parts of the country was rehabilitated, it had not been put to effective use.
According to him,” Railway system is an integral part of port operation or port management administration. That is what I call multi-modal transport system, changing from sea to land, go by rail, go by land, through the inland waterways. Cargoes should be moved on barges up to Baro in Niger state as well as Onitsha, then the road will be less congested”.
He pointed out that the port needed to be linked up with the rail adding that the port is choked up as a result of the volume of traffic even as he regretted that all the cargoes going to different parts of the country go through one exit which he said was not adding value.
“So, if we don’t link up the rails to the port, we are just building castles in the air, these things are not going to add value added to the fact that we don’t have truck terminals that all these trucks can be parked. You will just do all that you are supposed to do whereas the roads need to be expanded between the Area B police station into Apapa port. It is supposed to be at least six lanes road”, he said.
On his part, the Secretary General of NAGAFF, Hon. Increase Uche opined that looking at the critical importance of rail system in the entire transport chain especially as it affected the maritime industry, NRC had not lived up to expectations.
Uche said, “You see, the linkage of the rail system to the port is of paramount importance. It is so much important that there is no way the port can rely only on the road transport. The road infrastructure is not always sufficient in port operation.
“And if you look at the recent issue that just occurred, the strike action by truckers, you will agree with me that it is a complete show that the NRC is not living up to expectation looking at the infrastructural development.
“So, in my own assessment, a lot of work still needs to be done because until the port is linked up by rail, by road and equally by barges, that is through the inland waterways, that is the only time we could say that the port has come of age”, the NAGAFF Chief Scribe stated.
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Hon. Increase Uche
