Attack on Train and the Other Narrative

Eddy Odivwri

Penultimate Monday was another Black Monday in the annals of Nigeria’s history.  On that day, mindless bandits planted explosives on the rail track, somewhere close to Rigassa train station, Kaduna. After planting the explosives, they hid themselves in the roadside bushes, waiting for the train to come. It was the last train service (from Abuja to Kaduna) that day. They know the time schedule of the train and so laid in wait. As expected, the train came, the coaches climbed the explosives and pronto, the explosion occurred. The train derailed, and for over two kilometers it was struggling to regain control of the coaches. It could not. And then the shootings started. The bandits shot themselves into the train and by the time the dastardly commotion ended, eight people were dead, 25 injured and over 24 passengers abducted. That was the tragedy that befell the Nigeria Railway Corporation and indeed, Nigeria.

But a dozen days after, the concern in the public domain seems to have shifted from the tragedy to rather tangential matters. Many people have picked holes in the off-cuff interview granted media men by the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, on the attack.  The minister had lamented that the non-approval of the request to buy and install security gadgets and facilities on the Abuja-Kaduna train, had made it impossible to track and forestall the plan of the bandits or terrorists. He had noted that the cost of the security gadget was N3 billion, whereas the cost of repairing the damage inflicted on the train will cost over N3 billion.

Days later, the minutes of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which held on September 24, 2021, where the memo requesting for the approval was rejected, was leaked to the media. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo presided over the FEC that day. President Buhari was away to London at the time.  And ever since then, many commentators have sadly chosen to tackle the symptom of the disease, rather than treat the disease. They quarrel with Amaechi’s open lamentation “as if he is not part of the government”. They quarrel with him wanting to award the contract to a relatively young company. They quarrel with the financial networth of the company , compared to the value of the project to be done…. and all such outlier issues. 

Hey, where is it stated in the lawbooks that unless a company is not up to a certain number of years, it cannot do business with government? Or is it stated anywhere what the networth of a company must be before it can be given government contract?  Must every company be like Dangote Group of Companies? Having been registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the company was qualified to do business with government. What’s more, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) which screened the company in question had carried out all requisite due diligence and given its nod for the company to be awarded the contract. But Prof Osinbajo did not believe enough facts were supplied and so ordered that the memo be stepped down. By the way, who leaked the minutes of the FEC, a supposed classified document, to the media? Or was it the same ubiquitous bandits?

So, what if the FEC had called for a demonstration of how the mechanism of the security device would work? Or even given the requisite approval and directed that all such ‘missing information’ be supplied subsequently? After all, the purchase and installation of the gadgets had been duly budgeted for. But Prof Osinbajo, nay FEC, ordered an outright rejection of the memo, thus ending up throwing away the baby with the dirty bathe water.

Now, some shallow commentators are calling for the head of Amaechi. This is grossly misplaced.

The attack on the train would never have occurred or imagined, if the security issues in the country have long been tackled. Didn’t Chinua Achebe say mother hen must first be blamed for exposing the chicks before blaming the hawk that swooped on them? 

Amaechi and his controversial comments would never have arisen if the security malaise in the country had been tackled.

Some nay sayers had also claimed that the train had 970 passengers on board, whereas only 362 were on the manifest, implying that there is a huge ticket racketeering. That point kept being escalated with all the negative nuances until the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Engineer Fidet Okhiria challenged those pushing that story to come forth with the names of the remaining 608 persons, before that narrative was dropped. The barcode on the ticket is what digitally opens the gate for passengers to access the train. So how could a whole 608 passengers without tickets (more than the number of legitimate passengers)  have boarded the train? What’s more, the e-ticketing service is a concessioned arm of the service. So, how would a private organization, which earns its revenue from selling the tickets open up the gates for that massive fraud and still remain in business? We have a huge proclivity for the negative stories, as a people.

I was however bothered about the role and whereabout of the 18 armed security men which usually accompany the train. How could they have been on board, with all their arms, and the rag-tag(?) bandits, some 20-year olds, succeed in attacking the train with such massive casualty figure? Just where were the policemen? I however understood that they soon ran out of bullets while engaging the bandits in a shoot-out, and that made them even vulnerable targets, although none of them was said to have been killed. Question is: why were they measly armed? How could they be going to “war” and not be fully and maximally equipped? It is the same annoying story about fire service men who soon run out of water whenever they go to quench a burning house. These are just silly excuses that typecast us as a third world country.

The other concern is the issue of the telephone lines and the linkage with the National Identity Number (NIN) exercise which had been on the plate for some time now. The ministry in charge suddenly woke up from its long slumber after the attack on the train. It blocked about 73 million telephone lines not linked to NIN. Needless to say that without the use of the phones, banditry and kidnapping will seize to be lucrative. So, the question is how come the authorities concerned are never able to use the numbers with which bandits and kidnappers call the families of victims to track and trace the location and identity of the terrorists? Was that not one of the major essences of the NIN hullabaloo? It is as if the NIN fuss was a mere charade. Our precious times were wasted.

In any case, didn’t the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir, El Rufai say that they (himself and the security apparatchik) know where the bandits are and that they have their telephone numbers? So, what is this jinxed complexity of smoking them out? Is it a conspiracy of the ruling class? Pray, at what cost? Why have all the security meetings and strategy sessions between Mr President and Service Chiefs never yielded a reprieve for the nation? How can we continue like this?

As I was rounding off this column, the news broke, again, that bandits attacked a military formation in Kaduna, killing 17 soldiers and setting ablaze, two Armoured Personnel  Carriers (APCs). What a dare! Army formations are suddenly appearing so vulnerable like the gathering of women’s ‘August meeting’. This same Kaduna! Who will terminate this enigma!

Going forward, not only should the necessary approval for the security gadget be bought and installed without further delay so the train service can resume, on the Abuja-Kaduna route, the same technology should be installed on the train service between Itakpe and Warri, ditto the one between Lagos and Ibadan. What is good for the goose is good for the ganders.

To assume that the threat to train safety is exclusive to the Abuja-Kaduna route will certainly be misleading. The NRC must think and act proactively. Every train passenger deserves the assurance of safety and protection, whichever route they travel in.

PDP: Who will the Cap Fit?

Eddy Odivwri

Did you notice that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has just shown that they cannot be trusted to act with a single interest?

How?

You didn’t hear that they have thrown the presidential race open for every member of the party no matter their region or religion?

Does that mean that they cannot act with a single interest? Can’t you see that it is even more democratic as it has given everybody the fair chance to contest and possibly give Nigeria the very best, instead of closing from a particular region?

Look, all it shows is that the party members cannot agree amongst themselves. With people like Gov Nyesom Wike in the contest, do you think he would agree to be zoned out of reckoning? Or is it Atiku Abubakar or Aminu Tambuwal, with historical sense of entitlement to the party’s ticket that would agree to be swallowed up?

So, instead of the imminent intra-party tussle that could result in implosion and undue tension, is it not better to provide every player a level playing field so they can test their popularity and strength and see how it all pans out?

That’s how you see it. The rest of us can see it as the party leadership lacking the capacity to give a direction to its men. In PDP, everybody poses as the Alpha and Omega put together. The control index in PDP is low. Some of the governors feel that they are the soul and spirit of the party and that unless they have their way, the party will be detonated.

There is no record that the no-zoning resolve of the Ortom-led committee was coerced into the position it took. It was mutually agreed to. And everybody is happy with it. So don’t sit here and cry more than the bereaved.

I am not crying. I am only pointing it out that it is an early sign of dangerous malignant tumour. When a dog is not able to wag its tail, rather it is the tail trying to wag the dog, then you know something is definitely wrong.

In this case, who is the tail and who is the dog?

Do you know that without the governors, the party would have long gone into extinction? Do you know the economic implication of being out power for eight years? Or you don’t know that the governors are the oxygen of the party? So, if the tail choses to wag the dog, in this case and instance, it is all well and good. Afterall, he who pays the piper dictates the tune.

I cannot imagine a governor or set of governors dictating how the party will be run to Chief Adisa Akinloye in the NPN  hey days.

That was then. So much water has passed under the bridge and the bridge is threatened.  You cannot compare the humble and disciplined governors of the second republic to the epicurean and cash-loaded governors of today. Only the man who has a hunch-back wife knows how to go into her. The Holy Book says wisdom is profitable to direct. Leave the PDP and its governance style alone. Nobody can be more Catholic than the Pope.

So, who will the cap fit at the end of the day ?

Hmmmm, the cap is being designed. The shapes of the various heads have been taken. Only one cap will be designed. The many with the most agreeable head shape that can perfectly fit into the cap, will be the man.

What does that mean? Would the shape of the head have anything to do with the depth of the pocket?

The depth of the pocket will have a strong correlation to the shape of the head, if you know what I mean. But in all, what the PDP is desperate to do is to rescue Nigeria from the grip of insecurity and hunger.

(Raising his right hand) Hey, don’t go there! It is the same PDP that sowed the malicious seeds of offence that have germinated and troubling us today. Don’t talk about rescuing Nigeria. They entrapped us in this choking thralldom, in the first place.

Ok, let us just pray for Nigeria and Nigerians, so  that 2023 will come quickly with a refreshing package of good leadership, relief and succour. That’s all we need for now.