February 5, 2019
Press Statement
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chides the Buhari Presidency for its
planned hurried commissioning of the uncompleted section of the
Lagos-Ibadan railway, as a pre-election gimmick to hoodwink Nigerians
and create an impression of performance, when there is none.
The party calls on Nigerians to be very cautious of the project as its
opening without completion and installation of critical components and
infrastructure will be a great risk to lives and property.
This planned commissioning of an unfinished project is a reflection of
the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s desperation to pad up its false
performance record, for which Mr. President is prepared to jeopardize
the lives of Nigerians.
The Buhari Presidency, which has displayed complete lack of capacity to
improve or manage our railway, had resorted to appropriating the efforts
of the PDP administration, as well as lying about their non-existent
railway performance, just because the elections are around the corner.
While the PDP welcomes any effort to reduce the pains of travelling
between Iju, a suburb of Lagos, and Abeokuta, this premature
commissioning is a self-serving charade by the Buhari Presidency to
hypocritically ingratiate itself to voters before the election, after
which it will be shut down because it is not completed.
This, again, is another gimmick to beguile Nigerians with false
performance indices, as they did in 2015 with fake promises.
The PDP notes that the Buhari Presidency, represented by the minister of
Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, had in the last three years, turned the
serious issue of railway to media jamboree with endless site visitations
and issuing of disruptive instructions to engineers.
They want to plunge Nigerians into a disaster with the commissioning of
an unfinished project, just because elections are around the corner.
Is it not preposterous that the Buhari administration wants to
commission a rail system without adequate provision of basic signal,
communication and station facilities?
Besides, only one track has been laid between Iju and Abeokuta instead
of two and Mr. President wants the world to clap for him for such
mediocre performance.
The Lagos station for this railway is at Ebute Metta and not Iju. When
will the rail get there? When will the rail get to Apapa port? When will
it connect Ibadan? When will the 13 overrail bridges and key crossings
be built?
Moreover, when will the coaches, wagons and locomotives arrive? Where is
the operating plan? Have they recruited and trained crews? Why are
President Buhari and the APC seeking to celebrate when the main work is
yet to be done?
It is instructive however to state that the Lagos-Ibadan railway project
was conceived and initiated by a PDP administration, which also
conceptualized critical policies and strategies for its completion only
for the Buhari administration to corrupt the strategies leading to
delays and distortion of the project.
We urge Nigerians to demand from the Buhari Presidency the money
earmarked for the second track of the rail project.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
And
Director, Media & Publicity
PDP Presidential Campaign Organization
