Our vision is to evolve a world class system, says Amaechi

Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, has revealed that the vision of the ministry under his watch “is to evolve a world class transport system”.

Speaking at an event in Lagos on Tuesday, Amaechi said to achieve this, the federal government will need to invest hugely in the sector.

“Our vision at the federal ministry of transportation is to evolve a world class transport system in Nigeria and to position it as a hub in West and Central Africa,” he said.

“In achieving our mission which is to establish a safe, efficient, affordable and seamless intermodal transport system with global best practices while creating an enabling environment for public private partnership.

“Transport infrastructure development remains a major tool for achieving the aspirations of government at all levels.

“The federal government will invest hugely on transportation. We will continue to make policies that will improve our mass transportation system.”

Amaechi blamed the problem of mass transportation on poor governance, promising that the current administration will make a difference.

He fixed a two-year time frame for the conclusion of some key railway projects, explaining the strategy that would be used to achieve the goals.

“The problem of mass transportation is poor governance; the challenges of the Nigerian transport sector are not too different from what other major infrastructures have witnessed, especially abandonment by successive governments,” he said.

“By the grace of God we will complete the Lagos/Ibadan rail project in two and half years. In two and half years, we will also try to complete the Port Harcourt to Calabar rail. We are encouraging dry ports that will encourage the transportation of goods and services.

“In order to address the issues which the topic evokes, our focus will be three fold; first, we attempt some overview of the value of transportation in a developing country like Nigeria especially what a viable transport system adds to the economic advancement of nations.

“Secondly, we reflect on the transportation system the country has had, its impact on people and the challenges to the nation’s workforce especially the routinely migrating population and thirdly, we focus on the current paradigm shift in federal government operation of the transportation sector especially the ongoing reform in formulation of policy and implementation of projects that would ameliorate the challenges of the migrating workforce.”