By Chinwendu Agoha (Governance Reporter)
The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described the completion and inauguration of the Itakpe-Warri rail project, after 33 years, as another example of the single-minded commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to make the country's infrastructure better than he met it.
The group said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, that the project also proves that the administration is putting its footprint across the country.
"We invite Nigerians to note that this is a project that successive governments had since 1987 paid lip service to its completion and left it to rot with the excuse of inadequate funding, even at a time of surplus.
"The Buhari administration which came on board at a time the country was edging closer to a recession, and eventually entered it, still had the presence of mind to keep a promise the President made to complete the 326-km standard gauge project.
"We need to emphasize that this project was originally conceptualized to aid the movement of iron ore from Itakpe, near Okene, to the Aladja Steel Rolling Mill, but the Buhari administration ensured that it is now a passenger/cargo railway with 10 stations across three States that will enhance trade and commercial activities, especially the movement of goods and services between the South-South States and the Northern part of the country.
"We need to add that this project was fully funded from the nation's Budget without a need for the country to take a loan to complete it. And this is another example of how the President is ensuring that on his watch, the country is doing more with less, especially at a time of declining crude oil prices," it added.
BMO also noted that the completion of the Itakpe-Warri standard gauge line is a perfect counter-argument in favour of President Buhari's service delivery to the nation.
"We know how opposition elements have continually cast the President in a bad light, including some groups which even claimed that the administration had been doing more for one part of the country to the detriment of others.
"Like many Nigerians, we have always known that their position was a misrepresentation of who President Buhari really is, and this is yet another way of keeping those individuals quiet especially as eight of the ten stations it covers are in two South-South States.
"And for those who are always out to belittle projects completed by this administration, our response is simply that as at 2017, not one of the 10 stations had been built and no signal or communications equipment had been installed.
"It is also necessary to add that approximately $200m was spent on the project which is now to be extended to Abuja via Lokoja and Baro Port as part of the Central Line, while the Warri end will terminate at a proposed Deep Sea Port.
"The rail line is projected to account for close to one million passengers and approximately 3.5million tonnes capacity of freight annually.
"So If this is not a product of quality thinking by a forward-looking administration, we wonder how best the government's addition to the original concept of the project can be described".
BMO reassured Nigerians that President Buhari would not relent in his desire to see that the country has a good rail network by the time he completes his two-term tenure in office. NNL.
