Rotimi Amaechi can revolutionise the Nigerian economy if he has a coherent railway policy

By Ayo Akinfe

[1] Last year, Rotimi Amaechi was in China to look at the railway carriages being built. He will take delivery of 20 coaches but alas, this is nowhere near good enough. Nigeria cannot continue to be an eternal consumer. No economy has ever grown when it operates that way

[2] Mr Amaechi needs to tell the Chinese that they have to open manufacturing facilities in Nigeria. At the very least, they need to assemble carriages, engines, railway tracks, and sleepers in Nigeria

[3] Nigeria has a surface area of 923,768 km2, the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) should make sure that our railway network covers at least 500,000 km of this

[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

[5] We need a standard gauge national network that reaches every 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 state capital 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 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 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