I think President Tinubu should augment his recent cabinet reshuffle by appointing a minister for railways and set him or her ambitious targets like this

Ayo Akinfe

[1] By 2035, all Nigerian trains must operate using electricity. Diesel engines will be phased out as part of our commitment to clean energy

[2] By 2040, Nigeria must become the world’s largest manufacturers of rail carriages and engines. Today, India calls itself the pharmacy of the world. What stops us doing something similar with rail?

[3] By 2030, we will introduce double decker trains. With a population of 220m this is the kind of lateral thinking needed to address our transport needs

[4] Every one of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas will be linked to a national rail network. No Nigerian should be denied access to rail. Every village must be connected to the national grid

[5] By 2030, Nigeria will start using the Maglev magnetic levitation train technology. Only China has really developed this technology so far

[6] We will have a high speed rail service linking Lagos and Abuja. It would run at about 250km per hour at the very least. This will allow the journey to be completed in three hours

[7] By 2040, all our African neighbours must be placing orders for their carriages, coaches and engines with Nigeria. We should become the continent’s industrial workshop

[8] We will then create the Nigerian Railway Equipment Manufacturing Company with a mandate to mass produce railway tracks, signalling equipment, carriages, signal boxes, engines, etc. Our slogan should be: “Anything you want, we can deliver.”

[9] By 2030, the Nigerian Railway Corporation would have its own power plant that generates its own electricity to power the network. Our railway network will thus be disconnected from the national grid

[10] Nigeria will have a Railway College of Technology where staff are trained on all spects of railway know-how. People would come from all over the world to be trained there

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