University of Nigeria Research Publications

UJAM, Ujam . H .

Author Author PG/MA/93/14588

The Eastern Nigerian Railway: The Years

Title of Decline, 1967 – 1990.

Art Faculty t

epar History ment D

August, 1997 Date

Signature

THE EASTERN NIGERIAN RAILIWAY: THE YEARS OF DECLINE, 1967-1990

A PROJET REPORT PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR TIiG DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

< 8 r

9 \&& L--' UJAM H. U JAM B.A. Hons. (UNN), ~/~~/93/14588pf .;;+MFHE THE EASTERN NIGERIAN RAILWAYz THE YEARS OF DECLINE, 1967-1990 CERTIFICATION

Ujam H. Ujam, a Post-graduate student in the Department of

History and with Registration Number I%JM~/93/14588, has satisfactorily completed the requirements for course and reaearch work for the degree of Master of Arts in History. The work embodied in this Project

Report is original and has not been submitted in part or in full for any other diploma or degree of this or any other Univereity.

I I. Dr. ~o.N.Njoku, S~IPERVISOR ABSTRACT

This work is a case study of the Problems of the Eastern rail-

way, a section of the Nigerian railway, which included poor mamgemcnt,

inadequate fundina, staff rationalization, challenge from roads, and

embezzlement of fund. The study proffera suggestions for solving

the problems.

Although the ra had shown signs of decline before 1967,

that year marked the 1 ling of its gradual decline in performance.

This was due to many 1

put of coal and challc

the decline called fox salvage the industry. period 1979-1982, thou

With the exit of the 6 causes of the decline lar fur staff rationalization of RRI APPROVAL PAGE

THE EAST1 YEARS

This prof ect report of History, University of

Dr. C('{N. Njoku, SUE$RVISOR DEDICATION

To businessmen in Eastern Nigeria whose commercial enterprise has been hindered by the decline in railway transportation. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page . . eertification .+. Approval Page ... Abstract .-. Dedication .+. Table of Con tents ... List of Maps and Tables viii List of Abbreviations Preface ...

CHAFTER ONE:

INTRODUCTION 0.. I

Statement of Problem ... I.. 4

Purpose and Significance of the Study 6.. 7

Literature Review ... .a ... 8

Scope and Methodology ..- w.. 12

CHAPTER TWO:

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE EASTERN RAILWAY 0.. .a- Establishment of the Railway ... Construction of the Railway and Labour Recruitment ... Economic and Social Impact ...

CHAPTER THREE:

THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECLINE, 1967-7979 -PAGE

The Nigerian Civil War and Its Effect on the Eastern Railway ... Low Output of Coal and Lass of Major Customers of the Eastern Rdlway

THE YEARS OF RAPID DECLINE 1985-1990

The Exit of the RITES of India ... Staff Rationalisation and Irregular Funding ...... Poor Management ...

CHAFTER FIVE:

SUGGESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS AT REVIVING THE RAILWAY ro ..a

BIBLIOGRAPHY o o viii

LIST OF MAP & TABLE

-PAGE

-MAP: I Nap Showing Roada and Railway in Eastern Nieeria ...... xii

TABLE:

Statistics on Volume of Coal Production, 1916 to 1985 ...... LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

E.C.N. - ~lectricityCorporation of Nigeria H.S.N. - Historical Society of Nigeria

N .A.E. - National Archives, Enugu NAFCON - National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria N.C.C. - Nigerian coal Corporation N.R.C. - Nigerian Railway Corporation

T.C.P.C. - Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation

U;N.N. - University of Nigeria, Nsukka. PREFACE

This work is a case study of the Eastern railway. It examines

the problems of the railway with a view to finding a solution to the

protracted problems of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. The work is

divided into five chapters. Chapter one highlights the purpose and

scope of the study and the problems of the Eastern railway industry.

Chapter two focuses on the historical background of the industry.

The construction of the 11inr anA itn rrnnnmic and nn+.inl imnmct

on the people of Eastern N

In Chapter three, th

transport is examined. Th

civil war, low production

on the Eastern railway.

Chapter four deals w

of the exit of RITES, staf:

railway industry will form

Chapter five will proffer suggestions and ~alutionswhich could

resuscitate the Eastern railway in particular and the Nigerian Railway

Corporation in general,

The production of this project depended on the suggestions and support of people who I must express I am sincerely grateful to my Supervisor, Dr. O.N. Njaku who

has painstakingly handled my work; the Head of Department, Dr. J.O.

Ijoma, for his useful suggestioxm during our course work, Rev. Dr.

I.R.A. Ozigbo, who has immensely cctutributed to my academic career

aud otuer lecturers whose contributions have seen me through the M.A.

programme.

Many thanks also go to Crdef U. Esse of the National Archives,

Ehugu, whose assistance was immeasuraole and nis ataff, who without

complaint, respor~dedto my frequent calls. My gratitude goea to

Okoye, Lawrence and Paul Obiani for their useful advice.

Finally, all my post-graduate class-mates whose criticisms aud suggestions have been of good help are remembered - to them I remain grateful. EASTERN STATES OF NIGERIA: ROADS AND RAILWAYS I

Figure I: MAP SHOWING ROADS AND RAILWAY IN EASTERN NIGERIA CIIAITER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Much has been written on the construction of the Eastern rail-

way and its economic importance to the Eastern Region, especially during

the colonial period. Not much concern has bcen shown by economic

historians on the de~eneratincstate of the railway which some critics

have described as a patient in a critical condition. Th

work concentrates on the declining years of the Eastern I

beginning from 1967 to 7990.

From l9OO several schemes were advanced for the cor

a railway in Eastern Nigeria. The discovery of coal at E

encoura~edthe colonial government to investigate the pos

an Eastern rail line.2 The cost of transporting coal fro

Lagos and other important areas in Ni~eriahad been exorb

colonial government which wanted to exploit Nigeria's min

. apricultural resources at the cheapest possible cost. Th

a port in Eastern Nigeria which would act as a 'clearing

to the discovery of a natural harbour at Diobu in Bonny.

was later built at the harbour.

ailw way, as a land transport sy-tem with the highest carriage

capacity and low fare charge, was of great importance to the Imperial

Government which needed it to facilitate administrative, economic and

social activities. The build in^ of railway in Nigeria was not an easy task for the colonial government. The loan raised on the London

Money Harket helped in the construction of the Nigerian railway which

gulped $6.6 million in 7914, $75 million in 1925 and £23.4 million in

1938.' Railway transport facilitated communication among the

British administrators, missionaries and European businessmen.

The Public Land Acquisition Ordinance of 1903 and 1905 empowered

the colonial qovernm~ntto ncquire land required for railway construction.

Compensations were paid to the -'' 2-" 1--3- ".-' ---I----

government surveyors' evaluation.

Eastern railway was raised by Var

administration. Feople who could

made the principal victims of col

of such labourers were paid their

poor. Their daily shuttle to and

experience.

The construction of the Eas.

in 1913 and reached Enup in 1916,

to Enupu had been completed. In '

thus linkinp the Eastern line wit!

The Eastern railway provided

!?astern Nigeria and helped to infl

centres at Aba, Urnunhia and Port I1 among the people, reinforced colon exploitation of the mineral and agricul turd resources of Eh..;tern

Nigeria.

Railway transportation, no doubt, helped to revoluti~niseeconomic

and social. activities in most parts of Ni~eria. In the case of Eastern

Nireria, thc press effect of railway transportntion was signj ficant

because those living close to the railway stations .IC.Uh=d I~nma-bnhl- b111~*1ncxulb

change of life. Many people were offered employment in thc railway

while those who lived close to the railway stations were given the

rqpor~tunityof encaging in commercial activities.

IE~wever, the economic and social effects of railway transporta-

tion system beem to decline few years after indepc~ndence principally

because in the East the system faced intractable piroblems caused by

the civil war, the loss of major customers to othe~- transport 5 systems, staff rationalisation, irregular funding E ind poor management . The precarious state of the railway transport indusrtry went unabated until the late 15380s when it witnessed a rapid decl.ine due to poor maintenance culture, managerial incompetence and inadequate funding.

By large problems A" - "--1 --- -2'. --- --4. 2 mountable. In order to resuscita damages created by the problcms el

First, adequate funris and material

Government. second, credible man: the governmrrlt should be iris titutcd.

STATEPENT Ok. TnE PROBLEM:

Tne Eastern railway, like every other division of the Nigerian

railway faced numerous problems which were responsible for the declining

fortune of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. The peculiar difference

in the problems of the Easter11 railway and other divisions of the

Nigerian Railway is the effect of the Nigerian civil war. Eastern

Nigeria was a war tneatre during the skirmish. The lvigerian Coal Corpora-

tion and tr~e!uirerian National 1;etrolcum Corporation which were trte key

customers of the Waster,, railway were closed down.

T~Pmost imprtant prabl~rnof the Eastern railway was poor

tnanagement. The rnanaeement of tLe railway, like other divisions of

t..e ~vigerianrailway, has had a long history of itlternal conflict and

stru~glefor position and influence. Tnis led to impaired operational

efficiency. I'oor management of the industry was partially responsible

for tile u::der-utilization of human and rrlaierial resources. F;rnpty

wagons a~dcoaches were not always moved on time to points where they

were needed. Kor did the mnnapnent provide regular and scheduled

service to its numerous customers. This unreliable and unpredictable

nature of the services diverted several railway customers to road

transport even though it was more expensive.

k!ajor road transporters exploited the opportunity provided by bad management and lobbied undisciplined officers of the railway to divert customers to road transport. This act helped to reduce the

revenue base of the Eastern railway and other divisions where it was

practised. The railway had engaged in commercial ventures as alterna-

tive means of raising revenue, but most generated revenue disappeared

into private pockets leaving little or nothing for the Corporation.

Another serious problem of the railway was poor funding. The

Eastern railway, like other divisions of the Nigerian railway, depended

on the Federal Government for funds. In most cases funds were either

unavailable or inadequate. This situation led to non-payment of

salaries and gratuities to working and retired staff respectively.

Tho inadequqte funds, among other things, led to labour disputes,

strikes and unwillingness to serve.

The impact of the Nigerian civil war on the Eastern railway was

devastating. About 600 employees of various skills were lost and the

railway was closed down.6 Besides, the Eastern railway rolling stock

was extensively depleted as a result of the war. It took the Corpora-

tion years and a lot of money to put things in order at the end of the war.

The obsolete track system has been a major problem of the

Nigerian railway in general and the Eastern railway in particular.

The present rail line from Port Harcourt to Makurdi was built between 1913 and 1918, and it was characterised by extensive curves, light weight rails, weak bridges, steep grades and obsolete signalling

system. The efficiency of the railway transport was hampered by these problems .

Another proble-n was that generated by the exit of the RITES of

India in 1902 and the staff rationalisation exercise which came into

effect in 1904, The exit of the RITES of India created a vacuum in

the Nigerian Railway Corporation generally, The management could not

put things right years after the RITES had left. This was partly

because the Corporation was starved of regular funds. The Management

too was not able to continue from where the RITES stopped. The nationali-

sation exercise which took place in 1984, 1992 and 1993 disorganised

the industry. Many skilled workers and artisans were laid off. This

situation did not go down well with the labour intensive nature of

the railway. Things began to fall apart as few workers were made to

do more jobs than were usual at the same pay.

Other problems included the serious defects in the Corporation's

diesel ewines, heavy backlog of repair and maintenance work, extensive

detention time at stations, poor facilities for passengers, sale of

railway properkies and unreliable communication equipment.

The decline of the Eastern railway pwsed severe consequences on both the Nigerian economy and society. Goods were not regularly transported by rail between 1985 and l99Os. The transportation of goods by road made most gods expensive contrary to what they would have been had they been transported by railway, which was cheap.

PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICARCE OF THE STUDY:

The purpose of the study is to examine the state of the Eastern

division of Nigerian Railway Corporation sixe Nigerian civil war and

understand why it has been on the decline, The dilapidating state of

the Eastern railway is a case study of the degenerating state of the

Nigerian Railway Corporation in general.

Dilapidation was not peculiar to the Eastern railway within

our period of study. It cut-across all sections of Nigerian railway.

The Eastern railway is however used as a case study because it controls

one of the major revenue yielding sections of the Nigerian railway.

If the problems of the Eastern railway could be analysed and solved,

a solution to the general ailment of the Nigerian railway could be

easily diagnosed. It is hoped that the search for a cure of the

problems of the Eastern railway would help in solving the problems of

Nigerian railway in general.

The development of railway transport system in Eastern Nigeria where a poor network of roads has hampered transportation of goods and services is a necessary endeavour to be tackled by the government for effective resource mobilization. The high cost of road transport which has no alternative in Eastern Nigeria has led to the increase in the prices of available gwds and services. Improvement of the Eastern railway would help reduce road

congestion, accidents and scarcity of goods and services. It would

also be more cost-effective in the distribution of goods and services.

Application of some of the solutions to be proffered in this research

would help minimise the problems of the Eastern railway and other

sect ions of the Nigerian Railway Corporatian.

Many books, archival materials, magazines and newspapers on

the Nigerian railway were consulted for this research work. Most of

the materials consulted deal with the bullding of the railway, its

development and impacts on the people and economy. An Economic History

of Nigeria 1860-1960 by R.O. Ekundare is a relevant book on this

research, especially on the negotiations by contractors for the

construction of Nigerian railways. This book is of the view that the

extension of the railway to the Eastern Provinces and to Enugu in

particular helped to reduce the cost of transporting coal from Udi to

Lagos and other parts of the country.

Humphery Nwosu in his book, Authority and the Nigerian Civil

Service, discusses the factors that led to the decline of Nigerian railways. The bok explains that the Nigerian civil war led to the

loss of over 6,000 employees of various skills in Nigerian railway and the closure of the Eastern branch. In explaining the major problems of the railway, Nwocu stresses poor management, impact of tho civil

war, obsolete track system and unreliable communication system.

In Walter Ofnna~oro'sbook, Trade and Imperialism in Southern

Flireria, the economic motive of railway construction, especially in

the Eastern region, is discussed. Ofonagoro, however, traces the

construction of the Eastern railway to 1902 when Itu was considered

a ~ossib1.eFort. iIe is of the view that until 1908 the most favoured

railway scheme for Iastern Nigeria was tho projected Calabar-Maiduguri

line because it was expected to tap the trade of the Chud Eusin,

French Sudan and Gerrnan Cameroons. The discovery of coal in en up;^,

he argues, altered the earlier proposed rail line. The book also dis-

cusses the methods colonial governments used in acquiring land and

labour for the construction of the Eastern railway.

A.R. Afi~boin his book, Ropes of Sand explains the importance

of railway to the people of Eastern Nigeria. To him the recruitment

of labour in the railw~yoffered the opportunity of injecting some

money into I~bosociety with the usual reco~nisedbenefits - rise in

the purchasing power. According to him, the rise of commercial centres s!? around railway stations &one of the opportunities the railway provided

to the people of Fastern Nigeria.

In his book, the Economic Revolution in nritioh Vest Africa,

Allan kphee has argued that rail transport was essential to trade, communication and administration. In the colonial period, for instance, rail transport helped in the export trade in tin, coal, palm kernel, palm oil, cocoa and groundnuts he pointed out. To him the building

and development of railxay transport were paramount in the economic

trans format ion of Dritish G!est Africa. Railway transport was essenm

tiaZ to trade, communication and administration as Mcphee has argued,

but railway lines which were constructed from the site of raw material

to the sea by the colonialist appear to have added little or nothing,

in contemporary Nigeria, to trade, communication and administration.

Except for lrnperial Britain, the railway had no significant positive

impact on the colonis ed people.

Cllufemi Omosini in his article uF3nckground to Jlailway Policy

in Nigeria '1877-191)q" surveys the origin of the railway in Nigeria and

points out that railways more than any other subject featured promi-

nently in the discussions on the consolidation of British administra-

tive control. He emphasised that althouph the colonialist knew that

railway was indispensable to the material and spiritual development

of West Africa, the policy of developing the Nigerian hinterland

through railway was belatedly forced upon Britain by the commercial

implications of European rivalry.

In their article, llRailways and 2ural Development: The Nigerian

Ferspective", I1.M. bbubakar and A.S. Elikailu arc a good source of material for this research. They examincd the role of railway in sustaining rural development in Nigeria, In the article they observed that majority of Nigerian rural dwellers hardly benefit from the

services offered by railways because it has not been improved beyond

what it was in the colonial period.

The Dynamics of Chance in Eastern Ni~eriaby Anthony Nwabughuogu

is of vital importance in 4lc area of recruitment of labour for the

construction of the railway. The economic and social trappine that

came with the railway also form the major discussion of the book.

The book chnracteriscs three types of labour used in the comtruction

of the Fastern rail line - political, contract, and casual.

G.K. K. Cfomata and T.C. Monanu's article "roads and Railwayu

enumerates the roads constructed in Eastern Nigeria between 1959 and

1374. The authors argue Chnt road which previously acted as feeder

to railway witnessed extraordinary improvement in the 19303 when cheap and efficient lorry transport was introduced. By ?960s road transport was competinp favourably with railway.

Elizabeth Isichei in her book -A Hi narrates how many Igbo left their homes for the first time when conscripted to work on the railways. Some labourers according to her died on the railways, others returned home repelled by the condi- tions and indignities of the life. Others persevered and followed the railway in its progress to the north. Althouph the book was published in 7077 not much was discussed on the railway after indepen- d ence.

Many other books like Toyin Falola's Britain and Niqeria:

Exploitation or Developnent?, konomic History of West Africa by

A.G. Hopkin, Wale Oyemakinde's article "The Provident Fund on the

Nigerian Railway 1915-1943" and Y.B. Usman's article "Transport and

Communicationw were consulted. However, most of the information on

the problems of the railway were got from articles in magazines, news-

papers and interviews with competent individuals. Railway annual

reparts, theses and archival materials also formed part of the

materials for the research. Not much of the problems of the railway

and the factors that led to the decline of the Eastern railway have

been discussed in books. This research is an attempt at investigating

the factors that led to the decline of the Eastern rail line.

SCOPE AND MmHODOW:

This work covers the period from 1967 to 1990. Nigerian civil war began in 1967 and ended in 1970. Its damage on the Eastern rail- way was long-lasting, Attempts made at resuscitating the railway after the war were ephemeral.

The apprwnch to this work is both chronological and thematic,

It combines descriptive analysis with the narrative of relevant data.

Relevant books, theses, archival materials, newspapers, magazines and journals were consulted, The information gathered from them formed the background of the research. Articles in newspapers and magazines

and journals supplied the major data for the work. Interviews were a

vital source of material essentially because only few articles have

been written on the decline, and many vlews, observations and sugges-

tions of those who had encounters with the railways were not reported.

Since only few articles were available on the decline of the railway

transport, retired and serving workers of the industry formed the care

of my interview.

The work is divided into five chapters. The first chapCer is

a highlight of the problems of the Eastern railway which call for

concern. It also states the purpose of the study and the scope and

methodology.

The second chapter focuses on the historical background of the

Eastern railway. It treats the construction of the Eastern railway

and the economic and social impact on the people of Eastern Nigeria.

Chapter three looks at the years of gradual decline of the rail-

way. It examines the effect of the Nigerian civil war, low output of

coal, competition from mads and obsolete track system in the perfor-

mance of the industry.

Chapter four examines the years of rapid decline. The impact of the exit of the RITES of India, staff rationalisation, poor manage- ment and irregular and inadequqte funding wlll be the main concern of this chapter.

The last chapter, chapter five, proffers suggestions and solutions for revivinr the Eastern railway. END N(YI!ES

Yakubu Joseph, "Stopping the Rails on Its Tracksw A.M. News, Thursday, July 6, 1995, p. 4.

Walter I. Ofonagoro, Trade and Imperialism in Southern Niqeria 1881-1929 (Lagos: NOK, 1979) pp. 210-11,

Olufemi Ckoosini, "Background to Railway Policy in Nigeria 1877-1901" in I.A. Akinjogbin and S.O. Osoba (eds, Topics on Nigerian ~con&ic and Social History, (Ife: University of Ife Press, 1980) p. 159.

Walter I. Ofonagoro, -op. e,,p. 134.

Humphrey Nwosu, Polltical Authority and the Nlgerian Civil Service (Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 19851, pp. 117- 118. CHAKTER TWO

HISTORICAI, nACKGROUND OF TIIE EASTERN RAILWAY

Establishment of the Railway:

The history of Nicerian railway began in 1896 when the then

Secretary of State for the Colonies, Hr. Joseph Chamberlain, approved

the construction of a railway in Nigeria. Construction of the railway

began in 1898 after years of conflict in^ interests of various pressure I groups had delayed start of work. The first rail line in Nigeria

stnrtcd in Layor,. '1"rct line r-encheti Oshogbo in 1907 and Jebbn on the

Nicer in 1909. In Lhe Uarth, railway construction began in Zunceru

in 1901. The Northern rail line was joined with the Lagos Line in 1912.

The Fort Harcourt-Enugu rail line which was opened in 1916 joined the

Northern rail line in 1926 at Kaf~nchan.

In 1909 coal was discovered at Enugu. According to R.O. Ekundare,

this discovery cncoura~edthe colonial p;overnment to investigate the

porsibility of an Eastern rail line.2 The rail line was not intended

to serve the development necds af the people, but the economic end administrative interests of the colonial government. The high cost of transportinp: coal, men and materials from EnUf~uto Lagos and other parts of Nigeria was the motive force behind the construction a£ the Eastern railway. The Eastern railway was therefore planned mainly for the exploitation of coal at Enugu and oil palm in South Eastern Nigeria. ;,A. Olanrewaju has observed that railway construction in Nigeria

ierved a strategic purpose of penetrating into the interior to open

~p the hinterland for the exploitation of agriculture and minerals. 3

The adoption of the doctrine of "effective occupationw of

territories claimed by the European powers by the Berlin West African Conference of 1884 - 1885 acted as a catalyst in the extension of rail- way to parts of Nigeria. One of the most decisive ways of indicating

such effective occupation was by constructing railway lines in the

territories under clam. The British conscious of possible encroach-

ment of either the French or the Germans on her territory in Nigeria,

conceived a number of rail lines within the area known as Nigeria.

In the words of Oluferni Omosini:

the policy of developing the Nigerian hinter- land through railways was belatedly forced upon Britain by the commercial implication of European rivalry and the menacing examples of other pwers adopting the plicy.4

The major consideration for any of the railway lines among which was the Eastern line was its economic profitability to the British investors. "A line was considered viablew argued Akin Mabogunje,

"if it opens up areas which could grow or produce such crops as the

British imprialist would buy, areas which had valuable mineral deposits or areas especially coastal sites with good accessibility to Europe for 5 export of these comociities." Eastern Nigeria had valuable coal deposits and oil palm which impressed the British investors and influenced the construction of an Eastern rail line.

In 1900 Messrs Shelford and Sons, the engineering firm respon-

sible for the construction of the Nigerian railways, recommended to

the British government the extension of the rail line beyond Ibadan.

The British government responded positively and conducted series of

surveys in parts of Eastern Nigeria. Moreover, the Governor-General

of Nigeria, then Sir Fredrick Lugard, was anxious to see the railway

extended to Enugu, the only available source of coal supply in West

Africa then. fie recommended that the construction of an Eastern line 6 be given urgent consideration. The recommendation of Lugard was

informed by the huge financial cost of transporting coa1 from Enugu to

parts of Nigeria by road, administrative inefficiency wl hich the railway

could help to erase and the exploitation of oil palm in South Eastern

Nigeria.

Several attempts were made to explore Eastern Nigc?ria and lccate

a possible harbour from where a rail line could be constructed. Itu in

Cross River was first considered as a possible port in Eastern Nigeria.

It was rejected due to navigational and seasonal problems posed to ocean 7 going steamers. Thp most favoured railway scheme for Eastern Nigeria by 1906 was the proj~cted~alabar/~aidu~uri line which was expected to tap the trade of the Chad Basin, the French Sudan and the German 8 Cameroons. This scheme was abandoned when coal was discovered at

Enugu and a habour at Diobu in Port Harcourt. In 1912 Sir Fredrick Luqard, Captain Child R.N., Slr Esgle-

some and Lieutenant Hughes explored the Bonny River and found a deep

water harbour at Dlobu suitable for a port.

Sir Lewis Harcourt, the then British Secretary of States for

the Colonies whom the port was named after, approved the construction

of a port at Diobu. The construction of an Eastern rail line thus 9 began in Port Harcourt in November 1913. By May 1916, the rail

line reached Ehugu.

Between 1913 and 1916 a 1.05 metres gauge railway was built

from Port Harcourt on a branch of Bonny River to Enugu coal field.

This line which has a distance of about 307 kilometres, is generally

known as the Eastern railway. It runs from Port Harcourt to Iqbede,

the last railway station in Eastern Nigeria. The rail line has its headquarters at Ehugu.

The Eastern railway and the colliery were under one management until 1955. According to P.E.H. Hair, "the railway came to Eslugu because of the colliery and coal has always been the most important 10 commodity enrailed there," Coal was a very important source of energy for steam engines, The Nigerian railway used coal to power its locomo- tive engines before the introduction of diesel engine. This explains why the railway and the colliery were under one management.

In 1944, the Accounts Division of the Colliery was separated fmm the Railway Department. The Nigerian Coal Corporation was consti- tuted by Ordinance Number 29 of 1950 to engage in coal exploration,

exploitation and marketing in Nigeria. The reasons for creating

separate bdies for railway and colliery were to improve managerial

competence and encourage professional efficiency. The two establish-

ments, railway and colliery required different managerial control in

order to increase efficiency. By 1964 the Nigerian Coal Corporation

came under the Federal Ministry of Mines and Power while the railways

were controlled by the Transport MinLstry.

The Eastern railway has some short branches. In Port !.farcourt

there is a 9.6 kms branch from Elelenwa, built between 1963-1965,

This branch evacuates products from the oil reflnery in Alesa Elme

at Port Harcou* Main Station. Another branch from Port Harcourt to

Onne, connecting the National Fertilizer Company (NAF'CON) to the sea,

was built in 1385. In Enugu 8 kms of rail lines that carried coal

from Ogbete (~bwetti)and Iva mines were constructed. Another 14.8 )oas

branch line from Ogbaho to Nkalagu, which is used for carrying coal

and gypsum to Nkalagu Cement factory was built in 1958.

Eastern Nigeria has only 10 percent of the 3,484.8 ?ems of rail- 11 ways in Nigeria. Shce 1970 only Port Harcourt-Onne rail line, out

of a numbcr of proposed rail lines in Eastern NLgeria, has been executed

essentially bazause of lilck of fund and the frpoliticsfvsurrounding the

Nigerian Railway Transport sector. The much discussed 1,000 kms East- West rail line which would have traversed Ile-Ife, Akure, Benin, Onitsha, Onerri and Calabar put at W178 billion in 1985 has been

abandoned because of the problem listed above and poor appreciation

of the importance of rail transport to Nigerian economy.

Construction of the Railway and Labur Recruitment:

The discovery of a natural harbour at Diobu on the Bonny River

led to the construction of a port that would serve South Eastern

Nigeria. Abut 300 workers were employed to start the construction of 12 the railway from the port.

Railway construction required huge expenditure on labour, land

and materials. The railway, in the light of colonial policy, was

serious economic and social infrastructure aim& at achieving the long- term economic goals of the imperial government. The construction of the Eastern rail line was a huge financial burden on the colonial government, though the interests of the imperial government were rest assured. Part of the money used for the construction of the railway was brne by the colonial government which raised loan on the London

Money Market, Another part was sourced internally. By 1910 the loan advanced to Lagos by the British Treasury for the railway was put at

£792,500, This fund was supplemented with the surplus funds of the colony. The total amount used for the construction of railway in 1914 13 was put at E6.6 million, The rise was partly due to the construction work that began on the Eastern rail line in 1913. The Public Imd Acquisition Ordinances of 7903 and 1905

empowered the colonial povernment to notify any local community whose

lands were required for public purposes of its intention to take

possession of such lands. Such communities were entitled to 21 days'

notice of government's intention. For such lands classified ea

unoccupied, no compensation was paid by the government. Compcnr;a-

tions made for occupied lands were only on p;overrtment surveyer'r; I4 evaluation. Iands were acquired at Port Marcourt, Aba, Umuoba,

Umuehia, I1zuakoli, Ovirn, Afikpo road, ~pbnni,Enupu and Igbede for

the railway. llany communities in South Eastern Nigeria had tnei.r

farmlands plundered for pvernment projects. Lands were acquired in

all the towns the railway passed, but more lands were acquired in towns

where railway station? and staff quarters were built.

There were protests over these land acquisitions, especially in

Fort Harcourt. However, the protests could not change anytning

because of the Fublic L.and Acquisition Ordinances of 1903 and 1905.

The railway project was advertised as being a public work.

The construction of tne Eastern rail line was done by a European

Company wllose Chief Engineer was E.M. Bland. l5The labour used for the

construction of the rail line came partly from conscripts raised by

\Jarrant Cniefs under the supervision of the District Officers and partly from volunteers. Three types of labour were used in the construction of the Port Harcourt-Enugu rail line: political, 16 contract and casual. The Port Harcourt-Enugu rail line was

indebted to the political officers for the labour required in the

construction. Among them were the Commissioners for Owerri, Onitsha

and Calabar Provinces. One commissioner in the Owerri Province

warned the District Officers of his Province that *@recruitinglabour 17 for the railway must take precedence over other work."

District Officers in Port Harcourt, Owerri, Bende, Okigwi,

Abakaliki, Udi, Afikpo, Ikat-Ekpene etc, were used mainly in the

recruitment of labour. The labourers recruited by the Warrant Chlefs

were mostly tax invaders and dissidents. From the Pistrict Officers*

point of view, the practice of giving contracts to chiefs was conve-

nient. Moreover full supply of labour was ensured. In 1914, for

instance, Ikot-Ekpene and Qwerri Provinces supplied 5,000 labourers

to Port Harcourt, A total of 11,200 political labourers were conscrip-

ted for the construction of Port Harcourt-Enugu rail line. They were

made up of 8,000 frcxn Bende, Oloko, Umuahia and Abam Native Courts;

1,400 from Okigwe, 1,000 from Udi and the rest from &a and Werri 18 Districts. Not all the labourers were paid.

The contract and casual labourers were paid, but they were

largely Hausa and Yoruba. The political labourers on the other hand

constituted the bulk of the labour force. They were unpaid labour

sent in gangs by the warrant chiefs on the orders of the District Officers. Each gang worked for two months before it was replaced by another. '9 The casuol and contract leuourcro were paid only 2 to 3

shillinss per week. Nowever, payment was irreffular because of the

desire of the manap-ement to improve on the work done without much

expenditure, especially for the volunteer labourers. According to

Ekandem, one of tile voluilteer labourers:

I and my Eanp of 24 boys worked at ho. 3 Camp on the railwy and got; pay as follows for four weeks: myself seven shillings six pence, la-ourers six shillinps each, th~nthe next wee1k we were uot paid, but st the end of two weeks I got ten nnilli1kt:s ~ndlabourers eight shillin~sor six stlillillj s. I complained to the whiteman an(1 --T w .- -- L .L n L - - was cor:l we were not senr; ror our; came on our own accord. 'I'r~e,.Lne work vas measured and we were paid ol~eday's pay for 3 days' work. We worked for twa ~mreveeks and 3 days and T p;ot thirteen snillinp four prncc and labourers eight shillil~,:~.'Je will work for any other whiteman bur: IAOL this one.20

F!r. Samson Umu Men and Akpai, Umu Eden both of whom were voluntver

laoourers from Uyo in the Calabar Province empriutically said that a~ain they would not work for !Tr. ~i,re;s/bncause- of the irreplar wages.

Apart from the recruitlneni of hiour, some chiefs were given

the contract LO supply h tones end quarries for the railway conslruction.

Chief Eke of Isiaga in ADatcal.ini was oven the contract of supplying

quarries used in the construction.

Political lauourers most of who could not pay the whiteman's tax were conscripted and sent under the ~uideof the Police to the rail line where they worked as carriers, messengers and casual labourers,

The wage prospects of such labourers were unbelievably miserable and

welfare assistance not provided. According to Isichei, ''many fgbo

left their homes for the first time when conscripted to work on the

railways. Some labourers died on the railways. Others returned home,

repelled by the conditions and indignities of the life. Others perse- 2 1 vered and followed the railway in its progress north."

The more skilled and exprierxed employees oE the rallway in the

1920s and 1930s were mtivcs of Western Nlyeria where the ff rst railway 22 was constructed in 1890s. Labourers of Eastern Nigeria orlgin in

the rallway were later trained as artisans, masons, carpenters, fitters,

plumbers, mechanics, clerks etc. The wages of such trained people

improved significantly and altered their former standard of living

for better. Both the railway and the colliery were like two evlls

which the labourers could not easily choose which one to engage in.

Michael Croxder observed that before 1940 only the railways employed

a large number of regular workers among whom were trained skilled

artisans. The only comparable industry to railways as employers of 23 labour were the mines. However, both industries hproved the social

and economic status of those who worked in them elther as lalourera or artisans at least above that af the ordinary peasants. Some of them bought lands in the toldnshlps and villages ; built modern houses, married more wives, took titles and celebrated the funeral ceremonies of their fathers and or mothers who had died years before they were Vany houses in Coal Camp, Cnuasata, Opui road etc. in Enup were

built by railway and colliery workers. Many railway workers could

easily pay bride price of 920 when most other men found it very 24 difficult to pay as little as '1.00.

Economic historians should express both the bad intentions of

colonial infrastructure and the good trappinp that came from them.

The railway infrastructure constructed in the colonial era had symbiotic

significance. It helped the whitcmen in exploitinp raw materials in

Ni~eriaand also gave Nirerians employment which improved their economic

and social status. ':'he railway artisans earned as much as el50 per

annum, or about $12 per month while the labourers received lower wages.

The amounts, which ordinarily could not be p;ot from farming, helped

the workers in their social and economic interests.

~conomicand Social Impact:

By 1916, when the Port Harcourt-Enugu railway was completed

trains becan to carry goods especially coal and passengers. In

lql8 about 130,000 tons of coal were moved out from EnugU. In addition

to coal, about 4,503 passengers and 7 tons of ~eneralcommodities were transported throuph the railway. 25 'Phc railway wne also the rnnjor means of ~xportinppalm produce from the collection centres in the

Eastern repion. establishment of an Eastern railway gave rim to rapid economic

transformation in Eegtern Nigeria. The railway affected

ry aspect of the peoplels life. The first effect of the rail-

e acceleration of tramportation whereby diatmnces were bridged

=no mmssessible places rendered accea~ible.~~Railway .s a me- of

transport was essential to trade. It brought wealth, libertr, new and

desirable goods and security to the people of Ewtern Nigeria. In 1929

about 42,000 passengers and 2,500 tons of general commodities were

enrailed through the Eaatern railway. Again in 1950 about 2J,J0O pmssengers and 9,500 ton8 of general commodities among which were 5,500

tom of palm produce were transported through the railway. 27

The Esatern railway made eociml and tribal prejudices to diminish as intercourse among the various people of Eastern Nigeria incraasad.

People from various towns began to travel to distant places unknown to them before to live and look for jobs. Natives of Owerri, Umuahia, Aba

Hgwa, Ohafia, Hbaise, Nkwerre etc. travelled to Enugu and Northern

Nipria in search of jabs. Those who were employed in the railway aaaiated their relations and kinsmen in the asarch for job8 and mema of livelihood. According to Afigbo:

The construction of the rail line from hrt brcourt to Wurdi offered an opportunitr for injecting some money into Igbo society with the uaual recognised economic benefits - rise in purchasing power, more returns for producers of food, the expansion and re- enforcement of the cash nexus and so 0n.28 This new economic and social life enabled some railway workere to

build modern zinc roofed houses in towns like Enugu, Umuahia, Owarri

and Port Harcourt and their villages. New foreign goods like gramophones,

radioa, wrist watches, shoes, bicycle8 and iron beda were purchased b7

the worker^. In the villages and town people looked upon the railwar

workers with envy. They also formed the bulk of leads~sof their town

and development unions. Some of the railway workera in Emtarn Nigeria

took titled or added to the one the7 already had. Wale 0yenak.inde ie

of the view that railway labour had attractiom for all, free or bonded. 29

As the rail line traversed Igbo land the railway etatian8 and

halts became produce points of varying degree of importance. Among

these stations and halts were Port Harconrt, Aba, Umuahia, Uzuakoli, 30 Ovim, Afikpo Road, Agbeni, Enngu and Ehamufu. European companies which had clustered around the coast cmd the river banks penetrated the

Eaa tern region establishing posts and depots at vital point8 on the rail line. In the worda of R.J. Gavin and Vale Oyemakinde:

... ailw wag turned menqe eyes towards the sea and strengthened the econonic linkage between the places it passed through and induetrial Europe. But it also contributed toward8 the growth of internal comerce.32

ommercial centres sprang up in ulmaot all the major towns the -tam rail line passed. The rapid rise and expandon of Port Harcourt, kba,

Umuahia, Uzuakoli and to some extent Enugu was aa a result of the rail- way. People from Calabar areas transported their agricultural produca by head and bicycle to the collecting centres on the railway atationa

at Umuahia and Uzuakoli. At the railway atations European firm

established contact points and employed agenta for the purchaar of

needed raw materials for cmpanies in Europe. According to Walter

Ofonagoro, wtowns like Port Harcourt, Aba, Umahia arid Enugu were thua

launched on their new rolea as centres of trade and adminiatration in

south Eastern ~i~eria."~~People living around the stations and halts

engaged in hawking and amll-scale trading. Goods produced in Eautern

Nfgeria aa well ar, foreign ones were sold. A8 a result many people

were employed indirectl~by the railway.

The Eaatern railway wan a training ground for the early artia~a

such as electricians, carpenters, fitters, rasons, mechanics, plumbers,

welders, foundrere and painters. In the words of Ekundare, "the railwar

workshops provided some training for the Nigerians who were employed in

them." 34 In Enugu, the headquarters of the Eaatern railway, the locomo-

tive workshop waa divided ps follows: Erecting shop, Fitting shop,

Boiler shop, Machine shop, Wheel shop and Brass shop. The carriage

and wagon section comprised of a wood working machine ahap, a coach

repair shop, a paint shop and a carpentersf ahop. The aaw mill aectioa

was at Fort Harcourt. People of -tern Nigeria who worked in the work-

shops as apprentice8 acquired technical skills that gave them self-eaplop

ment after retrenchment or retirement. By and large, the economic and

~ocialimpact of the railway on the people of Eastern Nigeria were felt in almost every aspect of their endeavour. The railway was no doubt t& spring board economic and social development in Eastern Nigeria.

In summary, A.E. Afigbo put the impact of tho railway on Eastern

Nigeria thus:

it increased participation in the distribution and aaaembling of goods..., quickened the tempo of economic life and incrersed the flow of goods, Also by reducing the diatance travelled by people to get to important assembling and distribution -centres, the penetration of the interior by the European firms meant a saving for the Igbo in labour which could be deployed in other areas of economic and social activity.34 7. R.O. Ekundare, An Economic Hiatory of Nigeria, 1860-1960, (London: Methuen, 1973)~p. 136.

2. Ibid.

S .A. Olanrewaju , llAdministrqtion of the Nf gariau Railway Corporationf1 The Nigerian Journal of Public Affairs vol. 1 Ho. 1, 1976, p. 50.

Olufemi Ososini, 'faackground to Railway Policy in Nigeria 1877-1901rr in (eds. ) I.A. Akinjogbin and S.O. Osoba, Topics on Niperian Ecui~vmicand Social History (Ife: University of Ife Press, ?980), p. 158.

Akin Moooguuje (ed. 1, Urbanisat ion in Nigeria (Londou: University of LOJI~OL,I966), pp. 143-144.

R.O. Ekundare, op. cit., p. 734.

Walter ufonagoro: Trade al;d Imperialism in Southern Nigc~.ia, 1881-1929, (Lagos: NOK, l979), p. 210.

Ibid.

P.E.H. Hair, "The Study of Enugu 1917-1953w, An Unpubliehed Manuscript, Deposited at National Archives, Enugu, p. 73.

Ibid.

G.E.K. Ofomata (ed.), Nigeria In Maps t Eaetern Statee. (Benin: Ethiope, 1975)* p. 129.

Walter Ofonagoro, op. cit., pp. 210-211.

R.O. Ekundare, op. cit., p. 137.

Walter Ofonagoro, op. cit., p. 216.

~~~,~/2606/1913,Railway ConstructionrPort Harcourt Labour see CALPROF. 14181/1%6.

A.I. Nwabughuogu, Dynamics of Change in Emtern Nippria 1900- 7960: Indigenous Factor in Colonial Development (Owcrri: Efither Thornpeon 1993) pp. 59-60.

~~~.~/2606/1913op. cit.

A.I. Nwabughuogu, op. cit., p. 60. Ibfd.

P.E.H. Hair, op. cit., p. 74.

Elizabeth Isichei, A Historg of the Igbo People, (Lagos: Macmillan, 79771, p. 209.

P.E.H. Hair, op. cit., p. 75. Michael Crowder, West Africa Under Colonial Rule, (London: Hutchinson, 19761, p. 351.

Daniel Ogbodo, Aged c. 58 years, Retired Railway artisan interviewed at Amechi Awkunanaw on 20 July, 1996.

P.E.H. Hair, op. cit., p. 72,

Allan Hcphee, The Economic Revolution in British West Africa (London: Frankaes, 1971), p. 126.

P.E.H. Hair, op. cit., p. 72.

A.E. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo Hietory and Culture (NsuWta: University of Nigeria Press, 19811, pp. 326-327.

29. Wale Oyemakinde, "The Provident Fund on the Nigerian Railway 1915-1943~~Ikenga, V01. 2 No. 2, July 1973, p. 32.

30. A.E. Afigbo, op. cit., p. 326.

I. R.J. Gavin and Wale Oyemakinde, "Economic Development of Nigeria Since 1800tt in (ed. ) Obaro Ikime Ground Work of Nigerian Ristorz (Ibadan: Heincmann, 1980)~p. 500.

32. Walter Ofonagoro, op. cit., pp. 210-211. 33. R.O. Ek~ndare,op. cit., pp. 141-142. 34. A.E. Afigbo, op. cit., p. 327. CHAPTER THREE

THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECLINE

The Nigerian Civil War and Its Effect on the Em tern Railway :

As the Eastern railway began operation in 1916, further construc-

tion of rail line to link Eaatern Nigeria with Northern Nilreria continued.

By 1923 the railway reached Makurdi and Jos. In 1928, railway traneport

between the Northern and Eastern Nigeria wa~opened. From that period

up to 1967 when the Nigerian civil war began, the Eastern railway not

only provided an outlet for Eaugu coal but also a shert cut to the sea

for the tin from Jcs.' By 1967 a gradual decline in these functioas of

the railway set in.

A considerable pert of the revenue earned by the Nigerian

Railway Corporation came from the Eastern The rail line was

vital to the Corporation and the Nigerian economy. It carried the coal

produced at Enugu, palm produce of Eaatern Region and petroleum. These products yielded considerable revenue to tho railway. ~t tha Eastern railway, over 50 percent of the revenue came from Ogbahu - Nkalagu and

Elelenwa-Alesa Eleme branch lines. Passenger service yielded leas than

15 percent of the revenue while goods from Port Harcourt Wharf account for about 20 percent. The rest came from miscellaneous sources. 3

However, the Nigerian civil war led to the closure of the Eastern rail line. Describing the condition of the railway between 1967 and 1970, Akpe, one time Acting General Manager of the Nigerian Railway Corpora-

tion states that in 1968 the railway system deteriorated. 4

The impact of the Nigerian civil war oa the Eastern rail line

affected the general output of the Nigerian Railways yeam after the

war. About 6,OC)O emplojeea of various skills loet their jobs during

the war.' This made the railway lack skilled manpower aae years after

the war. Besides, the rolling stock of the railway wea extensive17

depleted. The few exiating stocks were generally inadequate for the

needs of the industry. They were partly obsolete for the functions

they had to perform. Many of those skilled workers who loet their Jobs

during the war did not return to work in the railway. Thta deraetated

the Eastern railway. The inexperienced people recruited for jobs

could not perform the work of the professionale, In the words of F.A.0.

Philips, one-time Chief Executive of the Nigerian Flailway Corporation

"the railways lost a lot of staff as a result of the war and I had to

tour along the line to interview those who could be recruited for 6 crash training over a very short time."

When the Eastern rail line waa reopened in September 1970, the

number of paseengers and volume of goods carried by the railway

hprored by 14.5 percent and 3.0 percent Betwiten 1970 and 1974 tho Nigerian Railway Corporation operated on a deficit of

2 rn1o8 This was partly due to the skilled workers loet during the war and partly due to inadequate finance and labour management. Eren though the use of diesel locomotires had been Introduced in

Nigeria since 7956, the first set of these diesel locomotives officially

assigned to the Earrtern railway started operation only in December,

7972. By Auguot 1973, there were 20 diesel engine8 and 40 steam

engines operating on the Eastern rail line.9 The delay in the introduc-

tion of diesel engine to Eastern railway was because of the deftire to

make effective use of coal and the civil war. All these contributed

to the gradual decline of the Eastern railway.

The poor condition of the railway wae summed up by Alhaji Shehu

Wunti, the Federal Minister of Transport in 7978:

In 1962 and 1963 for every Naira earned by the Nigerian Railway Corporation, they spent about 94k as operating expeases. This leavee a margin of 6k (tnat) ( profit. In 15 n spent about #' provis iotlal figures ror I y / / operaLlon mauzaLe that for every Naira earned by the Corporation tney spent bi2.65k.10

This was the situation in which the war kept one of Nigeria's major

economic and social inirastrtlcture. The impact of the war was signifi- cant in almost all sections of the Nigeria11 railway, but more profound on the Eastern railway which was within the war theatre. Apart from the railway rolling stock which were reudered useless by Ihe war, part of the rail line was damaged during the conflict. Serious defects in the diesel engines, heavy backlog of repairs and maintenance work,

lack of skilled manpower in workshops, poor facilities for passengers

and dilapidated cargo coaches were the major problems which the Eastern

railway suffered after the war.

Be that as it may, railway transport in Eastern Nigeria was

affected by severe constraints in early 1970s. A lot of factors contrir

buted to this. In the first place, the coal induetry which was a major

customer of the Eastern railway was also a victim of the war. Coal

production dropped drastically because the mines at Onyeama and Okpara

were closed down and only skeletal surface excavatione were done. The

Nigerian Coal Corporation, like the Nigerian Railway Corporation, lost

many of its skilled workers during the war. Enough quantity of coal wan

not produced for transport in the early 19709. Moreover palm produce,

a major export of Eastern Nigeria was neglected after the war. The

Nigerian Cement Company, Nkalagu, Nigerian Petroleum Corporation and

Port Barcourt Wharf which were customers to the Eastern railway were

all affected by the civil war.

By and large, the impact of the war on the Eastern railway led to

the growing challenge from roads. The state of the Emtern railway

was pathetic. Customers who had long enjoyed cheap and eafe transport provided by it had no alternative then change to road transport which was expensive, though faster. There is no doubt that the amount spent on road transport (which could otherwise be made less by rail) incremed the price of goods purchased in Eastern Nigeria - both local and foreign. Though the fortuned of the Eaatern railway have been declining,

the government has not relented in its effort to financially support

the Railway ~orporationsince the end of the war. The 7962-68 Develop-

ment Plan provided Y40.34 million for the railway. The revised total

allocation in the 1970-74 Second National Development Plan wae 1481

million. By 1973 ~18.6million of the amount had been diebursed mainly

for the ecquiaition of locomotives and rolling stock. l1 Further capital

investment in the railway system was curtailed to give the

time to re-assess the potential of the system and its requirement. The total allocation for capital inveetment in the railway during the 1975-

1980 Third National Development Plan stood at ~88.5 million. This money was to be spent on track improvement, acquisition of rolling atock, improvement of communication system, passenger facilities and the 12 construction of new standard 1.435 metre @age system.

Despite huge government expenditure and constant essessment of the problems of the Eastern railway, the fortunes of the indwtry have continued to decline. In 1985 the total expenditure of the Nigerian

Railwar torporation stood at 1189.16 million while its income wm only

~96.96million.13 This was the situation after the exit of the RITES which had come to revive the rail tpanaport system in Nigeria. Low Output of coal and loss of major customers of the Eastern Railway:

The coal industry was and still is one of the major cuetoners

of the Eastern railway. The Eastern railway was primarily constructed

because of the coal deposit diacovered at Udi in 1909. With the exploitation of coal, which was used to power steam engines, a consis-

tent cheap means of transport was assured. Some quantities of coal

were transported by rail to the sea for onward shipment to place8 of

its consumption in Africa and Britain. P.E.B. Hair has observed that

coal had been the most important commodity tranaported by the Eaatern

The railway functioned with the coal industry until 1955

when they were separated. A large proportion of the.Enugu coal was

utilised by the railway in the 1920s and 193%; between one-third and

one-half of the total output of coal at mugu was consumed by the rail-

way, In the 1940s and 19506, 6% to 8% of the output were utilised by

the About 33,000 tons of coal were used by the railway monthly

within the period. In the ?96b only, 17,000 tons of coal ware transported

to other usars.16 The Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, United Africa

Company, John Holt, Niger Cement, Nkalagu and Elder Dempster used coal.

In 1949 alone the railway used 320,QOO tons of coal while the Electricity 17 Corporation of Nigeria consumed 65,000 tom.

The shipment of coal was stopped in the 197b because the

Colliery could not supply the required quantity of coal to ite local users. Moreover the discovery of alternative source of energy in petroleum reduced the number of industries that made use of coal.

Attempts to diversifying the use of coal, after the introduction of

modern equl pmcnt from Poland proved futile.

From 1971 coal p~ductiondropped. Tn 1966, the colliery

produced 730,153 tons of coal. In 1971 only 24,404 tons were produced

since 1971, coal output per year has not reached half what was produced

in 1066 (see table in page 40). The drop in coal production was as

a result of the war, lack of manpower and poor management. This drop

however affected the perfomanre of the railway whlch made use of

several tons of coal and also transported large quentities to the

ports for onward shipm~ntto Ghana and Britain. Augustine Nwmekezie,

the Eastern Divisional Personnel Officer of the railway was of the

view that the railway wI~ic:h earned more revenue than other sections

was badly affected by the loss of customers who previously patxonised 18 it.

In the 1950s and 1960s the Eastern railway transported a huge

number of goods and passengers kcause other avallable means of trans-

port were few and expen~ive. From 1970s the efficiency, cheapness and

converlicnce of th? railway transport system were challen.-~edby the road

transport. According to M.N. Abubakar and A.S. Mikailu, the railway

transport at this period was clearly slower and more uncomfortable than 19 road. The Eastern railway thus pcrfonn.mcd porly in its general

service. This poor pcrforinance mzde several of its customers change to alternative means of trans,prt. This change rncant reduced revenue to TABLE SHOWING THE STATISTICS OF VOLUME OF COAL PRODUCTION 1916 - 1985

YEAR YEAR -- TONS 583,425 562 270 673,374 679 * 437 675,919 750 9 058 790,030 846,526 905,397 684,800 565 r 681 596 9 502 615,661 t;00229.19 698,502 730,183

War War War 24,404 176,927 323 07 314,457 277 753 2' 71 -397.39 2 82,729.00 2439317.5 201,601.4 163.00 118,317

Source: ~hirty-second AMU~Report of Nigerian Coal Corporation for 1985. the railway. Some of the railway customers among which were tne

lrigerian cement Factory, Nkalagu, Niger Steel, Lever Brothers, Weet

African Drug Compauy, Shell-BP, Texaco, Mobil, Total, Elf, Agip,

Nigerian Bottling Company, K. Chellarams, Inlaks, Cadbury, Ne~tle,

Dizengoff, Dunlop, Guinness, Turners Asbestos, Aba Textile Mill,

higer Gas, Safrap, Deminox, F.Z., NAFCON, Crush Rock and Unireraity

of Nigeria, Nsukka nad r;o make use of road to tramport their goods.

Tne higerian national Petroleur, c;orporation made we of road and pipe-

line alternatives to rail trausport.

Apart froi9 -?e loss of some customers by the railway, indiaciplina

and corruption among the staff contributed to theaitzzatioa the induatry

found itself. These were cases of bribbed railway staff that discouraged

customers from using railway transport on the guise that railway coachee 20 were fill or that train would not be available within the period.

In the workshops repairs were not regularly done ae coal ~nd other raw materials were in short supply. Administrative bottlenecks and poor attitude to work helped to hinder the railway efficiency.

Some railway artisans used the railway facilities for their own private jobs. The money generated throuph this source was not properly accounted for. By the end of 1978, the railway was de~cribedae a dead horee and the colossal bane of transportation in Nigeria.

By and large, the problems of the Eastern railway which were hard to overcome, made some of its customers seek alternative meam of trans- port.

Challenge from Road Transport:

It has been argued that trains consume less energy than cars,

cause less pollution and take less land space than roads. Train passengers were spared the hassles of air port formalities and the

traffic jam of motor roads. Thme advantages could not swtain the

railway which faced severe road competition.

In the 1920s and 19306 roads were primarily built to feed the

railway and act as a complementary meana of transport. In the late

1930s when cheap and efficient lorry transport was made available, it

revolutionised the transport system in Eastern Nigeria. The challenges

from road'transport in the 1970s were profound. By 1972 road network in Eastern Nigeria improved considerably both in terms of total length and quality. The total road length in Nigeria increased from 59,082 kilometres in 1958 to 95,374 kilometres in 1972. Tarred road length 22 increaeed from 6,284 kilometres in 1958 to 18,109 in 1972.

In the 1962-1968 Development Plan, the public investment on roads uss ~150.6 million.Z3 About ~0.8million wee provided for upgrading the Trunk 'Ar federal roads. In the 1970-1974 Second National

Development Plan + about ~398.884 million was budgeted for the Federal roads, while the State road programmes had a budgeted expenditure of t4233.526 million. A si snif icont part of thr! road allocation in the

1970-1974 Plan went into roiid rehabilitation in the Eastern States. 24

Some of the rehabilit,~tedr-o~de together with bridges were Port-

Harcourt-P.ba-Lhuahia-:,wgu-Enugu, Onitsha-Ihiala-Qwerri, Aba- Oron

and Onitsha-Awka-Vdi-Enugu. From 1975-1980 double lam express roads

were constructed. Th* Enugu-Port Harcourt, Enugu-Onitsha express roads

were built during the pcrlod. The single lane express road from Enugu

to Makurdi was also constructed. The construction OF these mads

without a correspnding extension of the Eastern railway to major towns

in Eastern Nlyeria made railway traffic decline by 33.63 percent 2 5 between 1959 and 1974.

The Trunk 'A' rosds linked different states in Nigeria and the

Trunk 'B' rcads connected the various states in Eastern Nicjeria. The

Trunk 'A' and 'B' roads were constructed and rn~intaincdby the Federal

Government. Thp Trunk 'C' roads connecting tams and villages were constructed and maintained by the state governments. In the Eastern

States the Trunk 'A' roads form the basic network on which other road systems were construzCed. By 1967 the total mileage of Trunk 'A' rcads in the Eastern States was put at 1,112 kilomctres. 26 The traffic. density in Eastern Nigeria before the war shows that the volume of traffic was heavy along the roads connecting Port Harcourt-

Aba, Owerri-Onitsha roads. Onitsha-Enugu road also had heavy traffic 26 but the heaviest was the Aba-Ikot Ekpene-Oron roads.

The new road networ-ks connecting the commercial centres of Eastern Nigeria wcrp a challenge to the railway transport which lacked

modern improvcmcnt. The attempts made by the Nigerian Railway Corpora-

tion to expand the rail lines in order to contain the challenges from

road transport wwe marred by finance and manpower.

Thc railway has bcen unable to contain the competition from road

transprt system because first, road transport penetrated almost all

sections of Eastern Nigeria. Road was convenient to customers because

goozs were delivered to the door steps of customrs. Secondly, road

transprt was faster and more convenient to customers and passengers.

Thirdly, individuals an3 f Lrrns hqht vehicles and used them to trans-

port their goals. Fourthly, with road the long waiking and loading

peculiar to rail was avgided. The rail transport covered few areas

in Eastern Nigeria while road linked mo:-t business toms. Finally,

the stealirq of ~~003~In th.3 r~ailwaycoaches was a threat to cxstomers.

Apart froin goods, some pnsspncjers had lost their money and precious

materials to thleves In th? train. 27 All these factors sur;tal.ned road

transport, ad made the railway lose its custoams.

Nevertheless , road transprt in Eastern Nlgeri a also faced serious

problems, though it was better off than the railway. Tho numerous

unt arred roads constituted hazards to road users. Pot-holes, erosion, constant accidents and poor painterlance wore the major problems of the

Eastern roads. Had the railway in Eastern Nigeria been improved and extended to connt?ct major co~nmercialtowns its former customers might not h~vecl~mg~d to ro~dtransport. M.N. Abubakar and A.S. Mikali

have observed thd unless the efficiency and the equipment of the rail- way werP irnprov~d, and a new flcidbillty built into the system, the railway would lox the battle against road transport even in areas 28 where it had enjoycd ccmplrative advantage. All in all, road trans- port was a big blod to tho railway. Though the Ball India Technical an'3 Economic Services {RITES) was invited to save the railway industry its exit led to rapid decline. NOTES

G.E.K. Ofomaka and P.C. Monanu, IIRoads and Railway1' in (ed.) G.E.K. Ofomata, Nigeria In Maps: Eastern States i~onin: Ethiope, 19751, p. 129

Ibid. Ibid.

E.A. Akpe, "I know experienced Nigerians who can put life to Railways" The President, December 1978, p. 47.

Humphrey N. Nwosu, Political Authority and the Nigerian Civil Service, (Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1977). p. 117. F.A.O. Philips "Ministry starved Railwaysl~ The President, December 1978, p. 44.

G.E.K. Ofomata and P.C. Monanu, op. cit., pp. 13-730. Humphrey N. Nwosu, op. cit., p. 117.

G.E.K. Ofomata and P.C. Monanu, op. cit., p. 129.

Alhaji Shehu Wunti, Vhy we signed the Agreement with RITESu The President, December, 1978, p. 40.

S.O. Olayide (ed.), Economic Survey of Nigeria 1960-1975, (Ibadan: Aromolaran, 1976), pp. 110-111.

Ibid.

U.M. Igbozurike, E.E. Okpara and M.A. Ijeome (eds.), Co-operato Role in Rural Development (Owerri: Karta, 1991), p. 97.

P.E.H. Hair, "The Study of Enugu 1917-1953" An Unpublished Manuscript, Deposited at National Archives, Enugu, p. 72.

Ibid.

Ibid. Ibid.

18. Augustine Nwanekezie, Aged c.45 yeara, Eastern Railway Diviaiunal Personnel Officer , Interviewed July 20, 1996. 19. M.N. Abubakar and A.S. Mlkaili "Rdlways and Rural Developnent: the Nigerian Perspectivevvin (eds.) U.M. Igbozurike, E.E. Okpara and MoAw Ijeoma, Cooperative Role in Rural Development, ope cit., p. 209,

20. Daniel Ogbodo, Aged c. 58 years, Retired Railway Artisan, Interviewed at chi Awkunanaw on 20 July, 1996,

21. Yakubu Joseph, tfStopping the rails on its Trackst9 A.M. -News, Thursday July 6, 1995, p, 4.

22. S.O. Olayide (ed.1 Economic Survey of Nigeria 19t OP. cit , PO 105.

24. -Ibid. 25. G.E.K. Ofomata and P.C, Monanu, "Roads and Railway op. cite, pp. 129-130,

27. John Aniagu, Aged c. 45 years, a trader that used the Railway Transport for his business, interviewed 411mll@+ 4, 1996.

28. MwNo Abubakar and A.S. Mikaili, ttRailways and Ri Development: the Nigerian Perspective" op. cit. CHAPTER FOUR

THE TEARS OF RAPID DECLINE. 1985-1990

The Exit of the RITES of India:

Between 1967 and 1979 the fortunes of the Eastern railway in

particular and the Nigerian railway in general declined gradually.

This decline made the industl-y seek for external help from the RITB

of India. The Federal Government of Nigeria had engaged a Canadian

firm, Canac in the 19&, in investigating the problem of the railway.

am on^ other things, the firm recommended immediate engagement of a

foreiqn firm in the management of the railway for 5 years. In 1979

the Federal Government adopted the recommendation and entered into an 1 agreement with the RITES for a period of 3 years.

The agreement with Rail India Technical and Economic Services

Limited (RITES) provided that after a period not exceeding 3 years,

an effective and efficiently managed railway system manned fully by

Nigerians, should be handed over to the Federal ~overnment.~Between

the period 1979 and 1982 the RITES managed the Nigerian railway.

Significant improvements on the efficiency and the annual revenue of the railway were recorded, though the agreement cost the fat Bum of

Y 125.7 million. One important reason for the recorded improvement within the period 1979 and 1982 was that funds were provided without much administrative constraints. New wagons were procurred md some grounded diesel locomotives repaired. The performance of the railway was illustrated by the fact th3t passengers increased from 8.5 million

in 1379 to 11.6 millicn in 1952. Df 1984 the number had gone up to 4 15.00 million. In 1932 also tlw raLlway Lransported 2.1 rnilli.on 5 tonncs of goods as against 1.G mLllion tonnes in 1980.

Between 19P5 'in3 lQ90, poor manx~cmcnt, moq other things, led

to rapid dcclin? in tl~~perfo~-mnre of the railway. In 1985 out of a 6 total cxprmditurc 0.' N10X.16 rnillfon, only M96.96 million was earned,

as against M36.7hillion out OF a total experidlture of N184.40 million

in 1992. Dntw~cn1982 and 2905 the railway held no General Manager or

Chief Executive. Depsrtrn-nts op:3rated indcpm&nlly oZ any authority

within the Corprdtfcn. This situ(~tionqave rlse to poor attitude to work among thc railway staff. Indisc11

There were cases of inaccurate accounting and misappropriation of rall-

-7 way revenue. Dekween 1987 and 1990, the Nlgerlan railway was plaguzd with illegal sales of its scrap metals, fake tickets and landed propcrty. The landed property of tho Eastem railway among other things was sold to privaLe in3ividual.s in Enugu, Aba and Port Harcourt. Some of the property was under-valued and sold to friends. of the railway officials.

Thr situation was confounded by shortage of locomotives: 148 locomotives were required daily for railway services but only 80 per day were available in 1985.~ in 1987 Lhe number further declined to

GO and in 1099, 40. .Ybot!t 440 coaches out of d total of 674 were Pn a working condition by 1907. The rapid decline in the number of

diesel locmotivcs, wagons and passenqer coaches derlved from the

drop in funds, techn1c;ll and sdrninistratlvc services.

It ha: also been pointed out that part of the reasons for the

rapid decline in thc pcrfo, IAK~ of th? railway in 1995 was that the

RITES camibalised parts of redundant diesel locomotives for the

repair of functioning ones. Though few spare pdrts were imported,

nothing was done to rcpai~-redundant diesel engines. Kany of the

locomotive ~ngincswere yroun-lcd !irithout anything for their repalr

after thc exit of thc RITES. ftcnry Okoro was quick to point out that

th~exit of th? RITES created more problems for the railway contrary

to the expzctations, According to him the company was interested in

fulfilling the contract agreement within the stipulated period and not 9 to leave the railway better than it found it. There were more

grcunded locomotives without anything for repair in the Eastern rail- 10 way workshop by the time the RI'rEX left, than anyone had expected.

M.C.U- Okoro did not agree that the RITES contributed to thc rapid

dscline of the rallway. I!? was of the view that: the primary cause

of the decline was cause thc cjoverrlment went back to its old approach

of irregular funding.'' Oy 1995 .t lot or railday cquipmont and materla1.s

like diescl locomotives, coaches, wagons, tracks and communication

were in bad condition.

Despite huge yearly financial budget expenditure on the railway, the problems continud. For 1n:;t ance, over ~500million had gone into 12 th~rai1'r:ay bctwcn 1987 an3 1989, wlkhout any obvlous lrnprovcment.

Th+- rapid dcclinc of the railway made the Nigerian government to

engage Cli? Chinese in resmci t ~ting the rdilway .

Staff rationalisation and irregular funding of the railway

contributed tc the rapid decline of the industry from 1985. There

were ~pccul<~tionsth~t one of the major problems of the railway wns

large number of redundant staff. The Federal Covcrnmcnt had the view

that the only solution to the prcblem was the rationalisation of rail-

way staff. Rationalisation exercise was to reduce the number of staff

and make thc industry pr-cfit-oriented. According to Kalu Idika Kalu

1,256 loccmotive drivers were cmploycd to opcrate 40 locomotives while

?,000 workers wcre employed to service locomotives and depleted number 13 of rollinj stcck.

Rationalisation exercise began in 1984. Though the railwlly

laid off 6,000 staff during the civll war, abut 2,104 workers were

retrenched in la%. The mass retrencl~rnentattracted severe criticism.

Somr! critics argued tlmt it was not carri~dout otd~rly. It was opined th~tsomc of the workers were L-et~enched33~cau:;e top officials of the managercnt did no: likc them and not becduse they xcrc redundant, old, 14 I11 or unproductive. Ho'n'ever, the retrenchment exercise could not solve the proSlems cf the railway. In 1PE6 more rctrenchmcnts xcre mde - about 400 men and women

were laid off, More workers were retrenched in 1987 and 1988. A

total of 1,380 were wrcded out in 1987 and 1,600 in ~988,~~without

gratuity and pmsion. The mass retrenchmcnt or the so-called staff

rationdlistiLion spclt dcom for the rallway. Many of its skillr?d

workers with yeais of oxprlcnce were laid off. This compounded the

problems of the industry which the exercise was intended to solve.

The number- of locomoCLv~smd rolling st~kawalting repair multipli~d

because experienced a~tisansand t cchnicians WP~Cfew and far between.

The few existing technicians were not sent on trainlng course t:o

improve their skills because funds were not available.

Apart fram those who were retrenched, many railway workers

retired because of many months of non-payment of salaries. Some of

the retired or retrenched workers especfally those that worked in

electrical, foundry end mechanical workshops cs tablished priv,lte

busin6sses. file serluus effect of the retrenchment exercise was that

workers still in service saw that their employment was in precarious

condition. The zeal with which they worked declined. This more or 16 less affected the gcn~rallybad situation in the railway Industry,

Abiodun Odunuga EOL-?cast that "If anything, retrenchment will not; only worsen thc fundamental beacons of th~existence of the industry, it would further complicate the already precarious transportation problems in the country, especially since the very experienced and 17 trained workcrs are b~ingthrown out . The number of railway pensioners rose from 4,000 in 1984 to

24,053 in 1995 because about 8,846 workers were laid off at the

instance of Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation

(TCPC). The Eastern railway had a total of 7,904 workers in 1993 cus

against 5,000 a few years ago. i8

Irregular funding among other things contributed to the decay

of the railway infrastructure. It had been argued that railway wan

not a profit-making business but a ~ocialservice. References were

made to Britain, Japn and Germany where government8 funded the rail-

WRY transport sector heavily. The British Government granted $704

million to the railways in 1976 and $928 million in 1982. '9 In the

Nigerian situation, the government expected the railway to pay ita

way. The government thus funded the railway irregularly in order to watch the revenue.

However, this funding ratner tnan improve the performance of the railway contributed to its decay. The Federal Government was releasing smut ~4 million monthly for the running of the industry while the wage bill of the staff stood at H76.5 million monthly in

1985. Records show tnat in tne early 1960~the Corporation had an operating annual surplus of #9 million. Between 1976 and 7979, it operated on a deficit of ~45million.20 One important explanation to this problem was poor funding. Records shod th~twhile X224 million was giveri Lo the Nigerian

rnilnajers of th? rai1:q for eight years (1970-19771, the RITES was

given N55 million in 1373, ld80 million in 1380 and another W80 million

in 1981 totalling H215 rnllllon in three years.21 By the timc the

Indims lcit in June 1?82, they had received a total of N431 million

and genrrated cnly r1214.7 :nillion lcavlng a deficit of N116,9 mllllon,

Besides, inad~quqteallocations were made in all the four National

Dev.-lopm?nt Plans. Rcc~rdsshod thdt in the 1962-1968 Plan only N30.9

million was allozalcd to thc ral'luny out of H309.032 rnillton invested

on the transport scctor. In the Third National Development Plan the 2 2 railway got 3.4% ant1 25% in the Fourth National Developinent Plan.

AI.1 thew led to the decay of the railway.

Apart iron inadequate funding the industry was unable to get the total sum allocated to It. In the 1970-1974 Second National Development

Plan for instance, uu: of 381 million budgeted expenditure only W18.6 2 3 million reached thz Corporation in 1973. This type of funding gave rise to non-paymmt of salaries. Avrirage railway warker was earning

N5?4 per dnnum in 1978. Though the amount was raised to M800 by 1989, it was not regularly pald to thrb railmen who had to cater for their children, wivos and ~~lations.Non-pnymnnt of salaries resulting from irregular funding, and galloping inflation changed the attitude of many wotkcrs. The m-tnaqern~nt of the industry on its wm was handicapped because the funding affccted every arm of the industry. Errlng staff were not disciplined. AZnaji Shehu Wunti was quick to point out that:

The railways which used to be one of the ricnest public sector agencies...lost all its skilled man- power to other sectors of the economy for want of adequate motivation.24

Some people were of the opinf on that the staff rationalisation

exercise could have been a panacea to the problems of the railway had

irregular funding not s killed all the gains that accrued from the policy.

A systematic rationalisation exercise could have helped to find a

solution to the problems of tire railway, had it been carried out in

good spirit. Inadequate fund atld unwarranted e tarf rationaliaation were

the bane of tne railway system which should have been playing a signifi- cant role in the economic sector.

Poor Management :

Management whicn deah with the principles mid practices of organisi~gmen and materials with ttae sole aim of achieving an end result in a particular il-,slitution, is a vital tool irr the aurviral of any busineee. The poor management of the railway was blamed on the ignorance of the functions and organisation of management by the edrninis trative staff .25 Non-application of the principles and prac ticcs of administration, financial management, transport economice and inter- personal communication were the major handicaps of the management. In the 1970s there were cases of General Managers whose managerial style and 26 personality stifled the initiative and productivity of their subordinates. The Canac's Report of 7967 had emphaaised poor management as

the major bottleneck in the development of the The manage-

ment problem persisted until the RITES was engaged in the management

of the industry. Ry the time it left the railway, the problem resurfaced.

Between 7982 and 1985 six Directors were left with the management of the

indtm try without nny chief executive. They engaged in clandestine

struggle for power and position instead of working for the improvement

of the industry. Ethnicism was a major factor in the struggle for

positions among the staff. Commenting on the problems of the railway,

Humphrey Nwosu states that:

.---- 0- .---'-- r-- .------0 ------>f internal conflict and struggle for power and influence and this led to impaired operational effi- :iency...poor management is partly responsible for inder-utilization of human and material resourcee.

hotv vanomv-- - are-- - not- slwavs-- " - moved- .. .in time to-- the... points where they are needed. Nor could the Corpora- tion guarantee regular and scheduled service to its customers. 28

Managerial factor affected everything in the railway within the period 1982 and 1990. The type6 of spare parts, rolling etock and diesel locomotives were affected by it. The poor training which the staff received was also the product of the management that existed.

There were cases of importation of railway equipment by the General 29 Manager without due consultation with the experienced railway engineers.

This situation led to mutual suspicion, lack of confidence and diatruet among those who were supposed to work as a team. The management and the Transport Ministry were in some case8 accused of Importing rail-

way equipment without adequate provision for their maintenance and

Locomotives were imported from different countries like

U.S.A., Japan, Canada, Romania and Netherlands without due provision

for constant supply of spre parts.3' Staff training on the use end

maintenance of imported equiirnent from those countries were not

assured. At the time the imported diesel locomotives, rolling stock

and other equipment were grounded spare parts were out of stock and

experienced engineers not in the industry. Some of the grounded aquip-

ment had to be cannibalised to keep others functioning.

There was also the problem of bad attitude to junior workere

by the senior officials of the Corporation. Evidence abounds showing

that some superior officers gave misleading confidential reports and recommended wrong persona for Hard work vaa thus dia- couraged in the industry. Those retrenched between 1984 and 1990 were not necessarily found wanting but because some superior officers wanted them out.

However, there were a few people who believed that the one-sided blame on the management was not reasonable. One of them, F.A.O. Philips was of the opinfon that the railway was in a state of neglect by the

Transport Ministry which it came under in 1969. To him tight ministerial 33 control was more of a problem than the railway management. Thm r;\il:.!~y h~ilno control over fares and ratcs. Yet some public

corporations which oycr,~tcdin the same way as the railway were allowed

certain m~tonnrryowr their own affairs. The Niq~rhnAirportr, Authority

and the Pr:jcrlc;n ;LLrr.:qs WLP given more autonomy thcln the rallway,

Aboc-e all, the Ministry in som cascs recornncndcd the appointrwnt of

G~neralVanxyrs who lid rm I-nodldgc of the railway problems.

Poor p!?rsotlncl management was a contributory factor to the

general For m.m?pncnt in thn corporation. Poor incentives to workers

and weak dixiplf nxy mcmu-es , mcng others, com~oundcdthe problem.

Lorg~--..;c~lccorrllption by Lhp rajlway officials was cndemlc, Officials

org~nisedillc-gal salcs of scrap metals, fake tickets and fraudulently 34 under-assessed rentable prcperties of the railway to their own benefits.

Long months of non-paym~nt of salarles ard instability in govrlrtlr~nt

were contributory factors to puor management.

n7is general poor mnayement oE the railway had serious conse- qunrlrcs on the ZasLern railway, which in the pst had performed better thm rnost secticns of the Corpration. Althmqh management was a serious clog to the dcvrl3p1r.nk nf tha railway, it was by no m:?ans. the only problem. Tn ;I wa;., !io~~,~vcr,?;.hiit: appcn~~dto !X m~nagernentprohlcm soul2 be -~t.t~chxlto 1olnl:;:cri,31 bolt len?ckr; and yovcrnment aktitudc to the corporfition. NOTES 59

1. Chukuumah Eneh, "No Regard for Meri tV1The President, December 1978, P. 47.

2. Alhaji Shehu Wunti, I1Why we signed the Agreement with RITES", The President, December, 1978, p. 40.

3. J.A. Owosini, llAgreement came too late." The President, December, 1978, p. 40.

4. NRC Booklet on Nigerian nailway Corporation (Lagos: Railway Press, Ebute Metta, 1987) Deposited at the Eastern Railway Division, Enugu, p. 11.

5. Ibid.

6. Yakubu Joseph, llStopping the Rails on Its Tracksqf A.M. Newe, Thursday, July 6, 1995, p.4.

7. Kenneth Tadaferua and Nik Ogbube, "Rail of Hoperf This Week, JU~Y3, 7989, p. 22.

8. N.C.U. 0k0r0, Chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation in 1985, Interview with Nigerian Enterprise, 1987, pp. 38-39.

9. Henry Okoro, Aged c .36, PRO Eastern Railway Division, Interviewed at Enugu an 16 September, 1996.

10. Ibid.

11. N.C.U. Okoro, op. cit., pp. 39-41.

12. Kenneth Tadafarua and Nik Ogbube, op. cit., p. 22. I Debo Adesina et al, "A Rail Behind Timel1, The African Guardian, September 26, 1988, pp. 11-12.

14. Yakubu Joseph, op. cit., p. 4.

15. Debo Adesina et al, op. cit., p. 12.

76. Kenneth Tadafarua and Nik Ogbube, op. cit., p. 22.

18. Augustine Nwakekezie, Aged c. 45 years, Eastern Railway Divisional Personnel Officer, Interviewed at Enugu on 20 and 21 July, 7996. lilhaji Shchu :.'unti, "Lhy wc signed the Agreement with RITES" op cit., pp. 49-41.

Patrick Jakpa, ":.,?lat hnnt wrong wiLh the Railways", President, Dccrrnbcr 1978, pp. 34-35.

fIum$xcy Nwosu, PoliLica? hu thority an3 the Nigerlan Ck~il Service (Enuyu: Fourth Dimension, 1977) pp. 117-118.

Debo Adcsina et al, op. cit,, pp. 12-14.

Patrick Jakpa, ":.'hat went wrony with thc Railways'', op. tit-, p. 34.

F.A.I>. Fhilips, Ministry starved Railways", The President, Deccmb~r1370, pp. 44-45. ffIAPTEA FIVE

Experts are OF ths opinion th<~tthe rsilway consumcd rcmarkably

less energy than oth-L rnodr; of. transport, mldc use of all p~imary

sources OF energy - coal, diesel, nuclear - as against other modes

of transpcxtation that d-paic!cd solcly on oil. Besides the railway

t ranspcrt ir, rnost ic~yor",r;Lly, chcap. Thcse views were pcrh,lps the

rndjor factors tllzt cncwragcd sow comrncr.tators to suggest that the

rail~t'ayas thc! nost cccnomic node of tranzport needed resourceful

In order to r?suscitate the railway, the problems enurncrated

in chapt:crs three and four 01 this project must he tackled. Poor rnan~gerncl-it h~lr,kecri pinted out as the most important problem of the

industry. Po~rrnanqm~nt is a serious mattcr For a big corporation l ike :he Niserian rallhsy with branches all over the country.

Inprcvment cn thc nxqcnpnt dcp~dson the appolnCmcnt or qualified st dff to lc;.l?rship psltions in thc corporation. Such staff should possess qudifi(.-d certificat~(s) in Managcrnmt Sciences with experience in Raili..ay Malajmcn L . Scctlcrnd scntimw-ks or Ltie so-called federal character, V:~G;C z;plicatian 1x1 must cases, discourages. merit and prumolqs ncpotism, should wroidcd. Sl~rtcou:~cs mlwdr kstiops on Pl,magcmentr. should be organlscd

for tile officxs md other staff of the Corporation to update Lheir

skills and improve their knowlcdye while in office. Through this

app:oc?ch the rndnagers and othe~senlor officers would be made

conversant with m+Jern conccpts of rnanagrrnent. Moreover, the mmagc-

ment should improve the sklll s of their staff by organising overseas

and internal training courscs to acquaint thnir Cechnlcians and

engineers with ncw sL-ills and dwelopmcnts in thelr professions.

IniIixFplin~an3 corruption which hzd debilitated the Corpora-

t ion could be clicxkr-.d by installing good mandgcmcnt . The issuance

of f&> tickckc, cmbczzlcmrnt of revenue, sales of railway property

for p~rronslgains, amn3 nthrr thinss, should be curtailed wlth good

rn?nagnnirr,t.. Thp printing of tickcts which had been done by the

Cor~oration'sPrintin7 Division could be assigned to the Niserian

Security Printin5 and Wntlng Company Lo reduce fraud.' Once the

fake tickets are circumvented by cnsurln~gcnuine printing maximum

annl~al~cturn would be guaranteed. Annual rise in revenue would no

doubt help in maintaining the Corparationts workshops and workcirs'

The wclfare cf workc~sis another important ared which god man;ge~r!cnt wauld help to revive. It has becn dgued that part of the reasons why industries do not get the best from their workers is inadequate 01- lack of rcclfare proqrarnmils. A11 grades of workers in the r,>il:.:ag yhould bc provided with adequate welfare package to Pnsure

optirnun prcduc t ivbpiLy . Too2 ~i~lfare package is an enticement to workers . It is also the pill th~tJisccurays. corruption and indiscipline.

The effcctivc usc of the various sedions of the Corporation

like Public Relathns, Printing Press, Mvcrtisiny ctc. should be

cncourdgcd to L~Ltrx-tmore cuctorrtcrs and win back tl~cold ones,

Therc were many busincssrncn ti'lio did not knod the facilities available

in the railway, .\dve~tiscncntwould make them conversant with the

opportunities avallahlc in the railway transport scctor, particularly

in Eastcrn PILgcrla.

Fli nister-ial Constraints:

Einisterial constraints: were psrt of the major factors that c~nfrontcdthe Nigerian Railway Ccrpordlion. The Federal Gowrnmcnt by an Act of Parlianrnt of October 1955 made the railway a St~atutory

Corpcration 7~1than autonomy to determine wages and other conditions of servlccs. This status was r~vertedin 1369 when the Corporation cam! vndcr th~FJLinistrlf of Transport, Railwaymen were quick to point out thzt the 1969 sLstv~swas respcnoible for the stagnation in the

Organisation of thn i.nciustry, Lack of autonomy gave rlse to civil service red-taplsm and other pi-oblems that pulled the railway back- wards. For a ver-y long time, on? of the mcri1; conslstcnt demands of

that if ths Coz~orationis givm thc opportunity to exist on its own,

it :,:auld ba able to talc? :lccisions and implement them faster and

9 L b~tt~~..This V~CZ:a111 O~.~IZL-Shad It:(! to 1-tl? suycpstlons th;lt three

autoncmous ccmpaii~sdiould Llc carved out of khc Corporation, namely:

Nl:;crim Railway Linitcd whici) would cmpcte passengers and freight 3 haul3g~wf!.h private ccrpanics, thc Nigerirm Rail-my Track Authority

which would mintsin the tracks and develop nl?w ones, charge fees

for the use of its facf1itLc.s and scrviccs; and Nigerian Engineering

Cornpany Limited which rcould tske over the Nigerian Railway Corporation's major workshaps in Zaria, %ugu and Lagos.4 Thz activities of the companies would be mnitored arid regulated by a Rail Inspsctorate

Unit iihich would be autcmmous and accountable only to the plinistry 5 u f Transport.

Dividing th2 railway industry into three dutonoinous compmins is quite in order .mJ could yiclcl thc required result, Ilw.~ever, the fact rexL]ins thdt ~rrLui~'disc lpl inruy rnl sut-es would be required othemis~zr.h;lt happmcd tn the railway might happal to th~three cornpmies . !!?~ltlly ministcrial ccntrol js good for tl~ccorpordtion but

not .I stringent typ tllst could discouray.~proflrimcy. The Federal

EinisLry of Transport sh~uldin most cases allow the ncmagernent of

the indu.~tryto advizc 1'. on the technicalities involvcrf in the

inportat1on of ccrLdirl mdchincs, spare parts and locornotlves . Thcre

were cases whsre rnin!'r;try withheld allocvlt-lons due to the railway

dnnually without cqcnl Easons. Thlz type of situation should dls-

continuc becau~ys, arn13n3 n:hm things, it distorts the plans of the

corpordtion snl rcndors th~whole systm unwo~kable. A situation

whcr-c thy corpration would hsv.2 to visit the ministry many timcs to

g2t iLs znnual allocaLion is unhealthy clnd should be d1r;ccurnged.

Tnadequst~and Irrqular F'unding:

No industry, hoxevcr excellent its management might not be able

to perfoAm without adequate fundlng. Though the corporation was not

~rnder-funded, lnddequlte and irregular funding have crippled Its

cpzration since 137Cs. The rnanxjement of the industry had in many

cacez ccmplaincd OF inaJcquate and irregular fun3ing as major bttle-

necks in devclaipinj the transport sxtor. Nthough huge mount of money was ~Llccate~Ito thc transport sector in the 1962-68 Ndtlonnl

Dcvelopixnt Plan - N309,C32 - only N30.9 mllllon reached Che corpora- tion. In 1980-1085 P!atignal ikvelopment Plan also abut 25% OF the

Federal Scvernrnent allccation to Transport Sector %en'; into the railway.

In 1995, out or a tct31 dlla-aticn of ::6 blllion to transprt sector, 6 the railway got a paltry sum of W3OO million. One time Chief

Executive of the industry, F.A.O. Philips has stateld that money given

to the railway was inadequate for the running of the Corporation. 7

Annual allocation to the transport sector is however not small, but

the allocation to the railway and irregular disbursement were not

encouraging. These explain why the railway has been unable to perform

satisfactorily.

Inadequate and irregular funding created problem for the rail-

way corporation. When the staff of the industry were not paid their

nontnly salaries and spare parta not purchased and locornotive~not

imported to replace old ones, and communication not kept in order,

the industry would be grounded. It has been argued that Britain,

Japan and Egypt provided more funds to their railway annually than

Nigeria with more kilometres of rail line. ,Nigerian government should

provide adequate fund necessary for the functioning of the railway so

that its organs would not decay and its contributions to the transport sector would be maintained. If the government could give the railway under Nigerian managers ~224million in eight years and 1431 million to RITES in 3 years, then the Ministry was aware that the yearly alloca- tion to railway was inadequate. The gesture extended to the railway during the period of the RITGS should continue.

Nigerian Government has neglected the railway financially.

Canac, the foreign firm that investigated the problems of the Corporation, in the 1960s recommended that tne railway needed el80 million wnicn it 8 hoped would reduce its problems by two-thirds. Needleas to point

out that one of the most important medicines for the cure of the rail-

way problems is adequate funding. However, the railway should also

explore ways of complementing its yearly allocation through internal

sources, apart from justifying the use of the money allocated to it

annually.

Technical Constraints: --

Technical constraints were perhaps parts of the major problem8

of the railway system. Problems of worn out railway tracks, bad

gradients and lack of standard gauge were technical problems that

could be solved by technical experts. Almost every kilometre of the

rail-track was bad and this led to excruciating slow speed and

frequent derailment of trains. Train speed was restricted to about

18 kilometres per hour because of these technical The

operation of outmoded and obsolete signalling and communication equip-

ment was also hampered by technical constraints. All these restricted

the operational performance of the railway.

Selected railway staff should be sent. on constant training courses

in order to solve some of the technical problems of the indwstry.

Although retirement and retrenchment have led to technical constraint^ because of the number of skilled and experienced technicians and cncjinccrs ?aid off, :hc! indusky should, if finenced, train its

technical staff in Ni3crln and abroa?. This would minimise the

technical constr,~ir~bsof Chc Corporation. Constant Technical Agree-

ments -&th cxp?rlcnzc? fcreiq firms could be renchcd on thc resusci-

tation of thrs ra!.l..qr dnJ training or iLs technical staff. Though

Fcdcral GovcrmnnL contr~ctAgrf?cmcr.t with the RITES was not an

encouraginq cxa;ripln b-canx of its short pried among other things,

lon7~~-conskmt aqrci'mcnts s:',th othcr forclqn r-irrns at solviny the

el pctrical , mcch~nical, foundry, si~nallirrgand communication problems

af thc industry k;~uldLo a nrccssilry panilcca. Thls arrangcmcnt would

also solve stlor-tage ol spare parts and rcpir-s of the railway

infrastructu-n.

If the milwaymen arc adequately trained to repair most of the

grounl-d trains dnd in sox cases construct unavalldble sparc parts,

the t~chnicnlp~-oblcms of the railway would be rninimlscd. Attractive

;:elfare package and sdlzrics Lo tc~hnicalstaff of thc rallway should

bc cncourag-d. It is h~..~rverthc ke1ir.f of most railway technicians

t hdt thni !- welfare vas not looked aftcr nor their monthly sa! ari~s guar~lr,terj. ponsLsC,~ntwcX fsrc P;IcI:;~c to thr? technicians and othcr rail~n's;.staff rhc~~ldbn adcplcd in order to rncourdgo hard work and dcdlcaticn to tlu!y. 5ivin.j Lh? ~-;til'+'~yt'72 fr-ee hm3 to op;-dl;c on a commercial

basis could he12 thz industry mcct up wi!-t~the dynanics of time.

It has bnen a~-cjue3thak bccausr the railway lack~dthe freedom to

act in,a dynamir sctting dun to structural chccks and balances in

the Xinistry, it could nct mcet up 'riith the cliallcnges that faced it 05tix- tlmc .

Tl~i?Nigerian R>il:.:ay Cor~orationoms such D~partmcntslike the &?dldnica't, Fabricd';ion, Foundry, Smithin3 and Electrical.

Thcse d~partrnctl';~,it is often clairncd, co.cr1.j turn the wheels of many industr-ics an:! fccl m-rrn;. homes with dnm..stic products at affordable prices. T!le Nigwlm RdlLi\'ay Printing PL-czs, its f lospitdls and out-

d0o.r arlvert.icln3 servizc2s could b1.1 coinrnercialtscd to ylcld more revcnu: to Lho industry. Evcn the Im3cJ pr~pertyof the railway could bc r9nLracted out to rniikc tli.2 corpocdtl.on viable. 10 of certain depar'immts in Lhc corporation. Although thc corporation

had cornnercialisnd son^ of its secticns care must be taken in orier

sulvinj ;umc of thc ,-~~blvr;of the curpr.ltion. However, privatlsa-

tion 2nd con\mcrci~lisdtlonwithout a respcnziblc bard tt~atcould

monitor dnd SII~CTV~SCth2 srctions could be a fruitless exercise.

Morrovcl-, thn social :prv!.zc :rhich thc ailw way had kcn provldfnq to

tho ;rc..ing t!i3cri;ln ~pxl~ltioncould be com;~romlsed for c?conomic

gdinz ~i'-houts~h hard.

Thc Chnllenge from Rcxk and Lw:s of Custoncrs:

Tllc railway lost nost of its custoiners to roads bccause of innfilcienry. tbreo-:er, rsll lin~shave not bccn constructed to mrljor corrmercial cent rcs Lo cazp Lran~~ortdtion. Our cconurny has suffer4 Sxause of the cxtrs amount people had to spend on ma!clng use of alter.1lstic- nimns of traxprtinj thoLr goods. Ext.ra cost inpcsed by the use of rod h3s 1-d to incre3sc in the prices of goods

~n3scr\?i~rs.

In order to meet th? challenges of road transport, drastic improveinent in the structu-es an-1 facilities of the railway should be undertaken. First, the rail%ay should be extended to link up trnportant curnmct.cia1 citi~s tl~ou3hout thc nation, Second, the three ral1-road competition 15 good for thc country and transport users.

The issue is tu havc an Intcyr,,tcd transport syctern in which rail,

roxl, a1r mr1 hi2 tnr-l.'dys cu~1.2play ccmplemtntclry rolc~.

tag" of wing t!ic most ecc-ncnic xeans of trans~ort. ~ccordingto cxpcrts, trains ccnsun: ren.:lrksbly less energy than cars ad lorrics, 11 an? cause lcss pllution. Constant traffic jams and road accidents could hc dnimised with the use of rdilway. In fact, trains arc

Nijerian 0xpcricr;cc ir, ~:r.iyu?lxc~use of tl~old equipment, narrow In csnclusion, r;c.l-~injL!IL* protlcms of the Eastezn rallway and

ttlc Ni;crian r;lili.'k~y ill ~-t:~~-dwould helve far-ranging positive of f~sts. kjricultu~~?.JI,~ lat ~rlurdcturcdyoo~ls muld be transported ch paply v.l?hi11 :he connkr;, passcn,cr traffic would lncrease in voli~rne hhile thc ccs!. ;,~u13go ?2b~;... NOTES

U.rl. Ijtozur-:kc, C.C. @kp;ira srld M.A. Ijcorno (cds. 1, "or por~tcP2l - in Rut-sZ DcvelopmmL, op. ciL ., p. 137.

Rcmi Cyillr;trin, "Scircrr,n?nt Zeriour; on Rail Revitalization Says Tluki-:eql 3-Tu.:r.dizn, Fri:lay, Jsnuxy 5, 1936, p. 20.

YaGuS.1 Josc>h, Skipping thc ?ails on Its Tracks" c~.cit., p. 4. LIST OF INFORMANTS

Approxi- Datc of Inter mate kjc view

Rctirctl Rail- 20 July 13% way Artisan Divis icnal Fcrsunncl 0 ff icer 20 July 1936

4 Au~ust1936

Divisional Public Rcla- tlons Of fr. 26 Scpt. 1336

c.GC) 'fears Retired Col Zicry Manager 16 Scpt. 1996

c.45 Years Driver 10 Oct. 1336 BIBLIOGRAPHY

a. Archival MaLcri~7.s:

~p

RIVPROF, 0/6/14, O:d. 86, Transport on Eastern Railway 2919.

CSE, 12/1/614, SP. 3/35/488 Elelenwa--Change of PJ;1:;im oi 'riiiuk~~-o~h~Railway Statlon 1945.

RIVPtVF. 8/6/66, fXr. 51, Contract with Chicfs for the Suiply of Labcur 1918.

PR,,LL r rill‘SF. 51/5/29, Itu Railway - Surveyor to hand over rn~kerials1906

ADADTST. 13/3/49, Rccruitrncnt of Labour for Construction, 2919.

CSE. 5/17/3, C.14, R~ipi~iti~n05 Land for the Etxitcrri Railway North oi bugu, 1923.

AIII)IST. 2/1/427, AW. 675, Rosd Competition with Railway 1935.

CSE 8/7/11, CSO 51, Udi Coal Mlncs Railway, 1912.

CALPROF. 14/0/1546, E/26-06/1913 Labour for the construction of Port ftarcourt Line, 1913. b. Official. Publicat ions:

Military Resorts on Nigcria prepared by the General Staff !?ar Office Vol. I (General) (London: Harrison and Sons 1929)

Annual Wport on the Govcrmmt Railway anJ Colliery for the finanria1 ycsr 1936-1937.

Guidelines for the Third National Developent Plan 1975- 130 (Laps: The Central Planning Office, Federal Ministry OF Economic Dfvelopncnt and Reconstruction.

Nig~rianCo31 Cor~r~tionThird - Sccond Annual Rep& for th2 yew 1395. Booklet on Nigerian Railway Corporation (Lagos: Railway Press Ebute Metta, 1987).

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