Never Say Never: Lagos-Ibadan-Abeokuta By Rail

 

By Dayo Emmanuel

The last time I traveled by rail was around 2013. I joined the train from the popular Ido terminus in Lagos to Iju station in the Agege area of the city.

I used to work at Daily Newswatch newspaper on Broad Street and I lived at Iju, few minutes walk from the train station.

The sound of the train was a regular thing in the neighbourhood every morning and evening. I was inquisitive and one day I decided to travel home with the train to beat the terrible traffic on the road.

It was not a good experience because linking the train station from my office was not easy.

I tried the train twice and vowed never to consider it again. The old train was a nightmare actually. In each coach, there could be more people standing than those sitting, apart from many illegal travelers taking comfortable seats on the coaches and those hanging who often snatched passengers’ valuables during the journey.

On the two occasions, before the train could take off, all manner of traders would sell their wares in the coaches. Rat traps, rat poisons, insecticides, story books, current affairs pamphlets, wooden spoons, dog chains, shoe polish, snacks, fruits, vegetables, etc.were hawked in the coaches before the train could start the journey.

I had said never to the train even with the recent arrangements by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), I never really considered it.

I have heard people share good experiences but I was fixated on the horrible experiences of the past until a friend told me how she boarded from Agege station to Ibadan. I had always told people that it’s a senseless journey struggling to Ido to board the train to Ibadan which would first merry-go-round through Iju, Agbado, Abeokuta before getting to Ibadan while I could easily get to Berger bus station and pick a cab to Ibadan.

The NRC must improve on its information dissemination. I am sure many people are still as ignorant as I was and would never know how easy it now is to travel by rail.

I was told to arrive at the station one hour before departure at 8am. This is more reason the NRC must carry the people along. I got to the station around 7am thinking I was late, not knowing it leaves Agege by 9am on Saturdays that I decided to travel.

Another first timer like myself didn’t have her identity card as she never knew that would be required. The rude attendants would have denied her access to purchase a ticket but she was lucky when another official intervened.

At the ticketing office, passengers complained about the manual ticketing method. Intending passengers would be issued a little ticket and officers in charge would write the passenger’s name, generate a seat number and a code on the reverse with a pen.

In the process, there was something like a mix-up and the process was a little bit delayed while the workers took time to sort out things also manually.

Again, passengers complained that if it was automated, there wouldn’t have been such issues, we didn’t know the mix-up would later resurface.

The departure hall is a very lovely place, the neatness and orderliness are commendable. Three are even prayer rooms for both Christians and Muslims to pray before their boarding.

There is no much difference between Babatunde Fashola train station, Agege and the sparkling Murtala Mohammmed Airport, Ikeja terminal 2.

Meanwhile, there was a uniform anxiety in the minds of many travelers. “This is Nigeria, will they be able to maintain this facility?” A passenger asked.
I met a few people asking same question and I was forced to answer some of them. That, “The maintenance of this place starts from you and I. They wondered what would have concerned them with maintenance. But I explained; “If we handle the facilities the right way, there may just be little or no damage.” They agreed, but the maintenance also goes beyond the physical handling of things.

Attitude of the operators to the facilities is a major issue and the NRC must invest in periodic training of its workers in order to create a sane culture among its staffers.

Sharp practices must be envisaged and nipped in the bud because if the NRC leadership does not envisage some of these things and involve technology to curb possible sharp practices, the system may easily be compromised.

While passengers continued to agitate due to lack of information, people began to depend on rumour on what was happening. Some said being a Saturday, the train would be delayed.

Another passenger said, by 8:30am the train would depart Ido terminus to arrive Agege by 9am.

Then one of the operators passed and we engaged him. He was expected to put up a defence on why there was no announcement. We were wrong; he took his time to explain the train was to arrive in 30 minutes, though he was wrong after-all as it arrived earlier.

We also asked why ticketing was not automated and why they had to assign seats in handwritten form. He couldn’t really explain but he was courteous to the surprise of those who had tried to ambush him thinking he would be rude.

Meanwhile, I deliberately asked him why the information can’t be obtained from their website and why they had to allow passengers to depend on rumour.

I was going to be mischievous when I asked, “Please what is even your organisation’s website so we could source the information ourselves?

My assumption was right because he doesn’t have the website off-hand, instead, he pointed to a pasted sheet where they have some useful information for passengers and he hurried away.

His action reminded the few of us grilling him about the popular ‘oga at the top’ episode where a top official of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) couldn’t give the web address of his organisation on a national television program.

Few minutes before 9am, the train arrived and passengers were ushered out of the departure hall. There were two options; going upstairs by the elevator or via the normal staircase. It is a sight to behold actually and a revolution in the transport sector.

Many Nigerians would not believe such a thing is possible, not even in Agege.

However, the government must speed up the construction of the Agege train station. Some construction workers were seen still putting things in place on site. Perimetre fencing of the station should be taken as an urgent infrastructure to prevent the facility from vandals.

Already, some tattered looking fellows with bags and large magnets, popularly called ‘scavengers’ were seen strolling across the rail line in search of loose metals.

Some individuals who are not traveling also still have access to the facility.

We boarded and at exactly 9am the train began its journey.

The irregularity we earlier noticed
re-surfaced! Some of us who had complained the manual allocation of seats knew it would happen as some passengers had identical seat numbers. It immediately became a big issue.

Thankfully, the aggrieved persons were settled as they allowed some compromise and maturity on the sitting arrangement which eventually did not tally with their tickets. Luckily there were spare seats.

One of two things must have caused the irregularity; a sharp practice or inefficiency, or may be the both.

This is one of the issues the NRC must look into and provide adequate training and automation.

The system should operate a cashless policy to avoid a possible hanky-panky Nigerians are often tempted to engage in when physical cash is involved.

If Lagosians as far back as the Fashola administration could use electronic bus cards to pay on the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT), nothing should stop the use of electronic cards on the train.

We left Agege in no time and traveled through Iju to the Lateef Kayode Jakande station at Agbado which is still under construction.

It was a very comfortable journey and different from what many had witnessed in the past.

At exactly one hour after leaving Agege, we arrived at the Professor Wole Soyinka train station, Abeokuta. Some passengers disembarked and a few others boarded.

Adequate security was provided and COVID-19 protocols were observed except the use of hand sanitiser. Since there is no known cure yet for the virus, the NRC should mandate full compliance with all the protocols especially making hand sanitisers available before boarding or at least providing hand washing facilities before passengers could board.

The train traveled through the Aremo Olusegun Osoba station, Olodo, Abeokuta before arriving at the Samuel Ladoke Akintola train station, Omi Adio, Ibadan.
From Abeokuta to Omi Adio was about 45 minutes journey and about 20 minutes after, we arrived at the Ibadan terminus named Obafemi Awolowo train station.

Oyo State government and the private transporters in Ibadan should maximize the opportunity of the train station to create more business and ease movement of the travelers who use the station in their hundreds daily.

A long bus similar to the red LAG bus was on ground to convey passengers into town. That was the only bus available and arriving passengers rushed to get space. Some of us were reluctant to board initially but had to advise ourselves when we heard that was the only bus available.

Other commercial vehicles especially the normal Ibadan Nissan Micra cabs that crowd five passengers also littered the station.
Oyo State must improve on its transport system from which it could make great gains if the right infrastructure and management are put in place.

The taste of a luxury journey from Lagos to Ibadan can turn sour with another two hours torture within Ibadan before reaching one’s destination because of lack of preparedness of the intracity transport system to benefit from such a huge opportunity of a mega train station.

The return trip was not much of a difference as far as the luxury was concerned. This time it was my wife and I making the journey.
We had to travel from the popular Iwo road area to the terminus at Moniya.

It was a public holiday and the train has a departure time of 8am on weekdays. We must arrive at the station latest 7:50am according to an official of the bus which had conveyed other passengers and I from the station three days earlier.

At 7am we hired a taxi to take us to the Obafemi Awolowo train station not knowing the driver does not know where the station is located in Moniya.

We felt it was early enough to leave home not knowing the NRC as usual has nothing like enlightenment among the taxi drivers about its mega station and there are no road signs to direct intending travelers.

At a point, we sensed we were going outside Ibadan towards Oyo town, we asked the driver if he actually knows the train station. The look on his face betrayed him, then we had to ask one other driver who directed us. It is only in Ibadan a taxi driver would stop to buy pap while his passengers are seated. This is one of the funny features of the city formed by Yoruba warlords after the Yoruba wars of the 19th century.

The ignorant driver had to turn from the opposite direction he had traveled far into.
Getting on the right track, we were about missing the train but he still missed his way a second time.

Instead of being remorseful, the heady driver was lamenting he had wasted fuel on a journey he wouldn’t have agreed to embark upon. At that point he was moving in a
slow-motion perhaps to punish his executive passengers until we made him realise how stupid and greedy he was by accepting a journey when he doesn’t even know his destination.

That cautioning calmed his grumbling and he drove into a filling station to buy some ₦500 fuel at a time we were supposed to be settling on board.

His second miss was because the roads are not well marked and labeled to indicate such a mega station was ahead. We later found a signboard erected by the NRC which one would have expected to be conspicuous.

The NRC would do well to put the right road signs to help people moving in and out of the station, especially a driver like ours who had works several years in Ibadan without knowing a train station exists at Moniya.

Alighting from the taxi, checking-in was remaining few minutes. Other taxi drivers who had brought their passengers earlier, a soldier attached to the station and traders at the station were so sorry for the late comers. The soldier shouted run! You have only four minutes!

About three of us intending to travel with our heavy bags started a 100 metres dash!

As God would have it, we were able to make it into the building before the period of grace elapsed.

In no time, we observed the COVID-19 protocols and were allowed to board.

The journey began at 8am, not until then we started panting as the train made a slow motion out of the Obafemi Awolowo station.

In another 17 minutes, we were at the Samuel Ladoke Akintola train station, Omi Adio, Ibadan where a few other passengers boarded.

As the train gained momentum, the scenery viewed from the window was so lovely as the morning sunrays penetrated the bright clouds.

Farmers were out on the green fields as we traveled through some farm settlements comprising green plantations and brown swamps.

The journey between Ibadan and Abeokuta by rail is just 60 minutes and the train was going to do it fewer than that. I noticed the train’s speed reduced and we soon got to a station under construction. I didn’t notice it during the first leg of my journey actually.

It is named Aremo Olusegun Osoba station, Olodo-Abeokuta. Located in an agrarian settlement and obviously it would help farmers and traders moving farm produce to the markets in the nearby cities.

Within minutes, we were at the Professor Wole Soyinka station Abeokuta.
In all, the train option is a welcome idea and very comfortable but the government must heighten infrastructural development around the stations.

Again, the luxury of the journey from Ibadan was sucked away immediately after arriving the station into the hands of unprofessional workers of the NRC.

Aparently passengers just disembarking couldn’t find their way as there was no sign and no staff on ground to direct. We were moving in the wrong direction and a rude male staff shouted at the crowd, “don’t pass here, you can’t pass here!”

I had to walk up to him and we had a short shouting session that calmed him a bit. I had to explain to him he should reason that most of us are as new as the facility. “You don’t shout at passengers,” I told him.

Another sour taste is the fact that the station was built in the middle of no where. No access roads to convey people from the station. My brother who came to receive us regretted coming in his car as he had to navigate through the terrible roads of the Olokuta area of the Abeokuta outskirts to link the major road.

The government has not done enough to make people comfortable with the train option.

My trip back to Lagos was by road and unusually, I decided to travel through the old road.

We traveled 90 minutes from Abeokuta to Sango-Ota and struggled for another two hours to find our way out of Ota via the Bible College at the toll gate.

It was a heinous experience and I am appealing the government of Ogun State should attend to Sango axis of the state that practically has no road.

The federal road linking Sango-Ota and Lagos is in a deplorable state despite being rehabilitated presently.

The Ota axis is highly industrialised and the road network in the area is an eyesore that should be a shame to the entire nation.

Relevant stakeholders should collaborate to make traveling in Nigeria a more desirable thing as this would better the economy.

The NRC should scale up enlightenment about its operations and train it’s workers periodically.

The road network around each station should be taken as serious as the train facility and this will support the entire process to ease the movement of people, goods and services in and out of the stations. The Federal Government should also try to link more cities with the rail.