The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the breakdown of the Lagos-Ibadan railway and general operations of the Nigeria Railway Corporations (NRC).
The decision to investigate the incident and corporation followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta) on Tuesday.
The motion was entitled, “Need to investigate the Ibadan-Lagos train fuel saga.”
It had reported the breakdown of the Lagos-Ibadan train due to insufficient fuel. The NRC Managing Director, Fidelis Okhiria, had explained the incident happened because of a faulty fuel gauge that was fixed within one hour.
Moving the motion, Mr Elumelu accused the NRC of “operational incompetence” for the March 11 incident.
He added that the “episode exposes the carelessness, irresponsibility and incompetence of the management of the Nigeria railway corporation to effectively and efficiently manage the sector.”
Mr Elumelu berated Mr Okhiria for his response to the incident.
He also indicted the House Committee on Land Transportation for not doing proper oversight on the sector. He prayed that an ad hoc committee be set up to investigate the sector.
“I am not aware that there have been issues or even seen on electronic media that the committee went on oversight on the railway. I don’t want it to seem like I am indicting our committees. The MD having come out to insinuate that the committee may be aware of the fuel issue. I felt that an independent committee that may not be so indicted or seems to take sides should be set up to investigate this matter,” he said.
The request to set up an ad hoc committee was overruled by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, who said the standing committee should be allowed to carry out the investigation.
“I believe that is Honourable Tajudeen Abbas’ committee, and he is a very competent chairman, we don’t know what he is doing. It is not everything that a committee does that they will bring to the floor of the House.
“We don’t know what he is doing behind the scenes, so, I don’t think the circumstances are sufficient enough to send it to an ad hoc committee. We have no evidence that the standing committee is not doing enough,” Mr Gbajabiamila said.
Majority Leader trying to protect APC legacy project…
The 157km standard gauge railway constructed by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has been hailed by supporters of the current administration as one of the legacy projects of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Ado Doguwa (APC, Kano), on Tuesday, attacked the Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) over the latter’s comments on the safety of Nigerians using the railway.
Mr Okechukwu, while contributing to the motion, said if such had happened with an aircraft, Nigerians should imagine the consequences.
“If prudent and deliberate effort is not made to forestall such a situation occurring, our lives and the lives of Nigerians may be exposed. That a train carrying Nigerian passengers could stop on the way is indicative of an underlying problem.
“Mr Speaker, imagine if you were airborne and suddenly had no aviation fuel. A breach of process or offence is committed by omission or commission, if you neglect or refuse to do those things you ought to have done – I would not know the kind of management that would make it possible that 80km…”
Mr Doguwa, thereby, raised a point of order, asking the Speaker to stop any debate into the motion.
He said Mr Okechukwu is acting like an agent of doom.
He stated that the comments by Mr Okechukwu were unnecessary and dialectical.
“This is somebody trying to be an agent of doom, suggesting a situation which imaginably cannot happen. Giving us stories about aircraft and fuels. How can you be a messenger of doom, giving impractical examples? He is going into dielectric matters, talking about aircraft losing fuel. It is like you are a messenger of doom. It is irrelevant,” he said.
However, Mr Gbajabiamila ruled him out of order, noting that the argument is relevant to the motion.
Mr Doguwa had even attempted to block the motion from being considered as a matter of urgent public importance. He accused the minority leader of having a motive for raising the motion.
“It cannot be too urgent, it has happened, it has happened. He should be guided. He has a motive,” Mr Doguwa said.
He was, however, ruled out of order by the Speaker over the comment.
Mr Doguwa subsequently changed his stance on the minority leader by saying, “He (Mr Elumelu) is a friendly opposition leader, if not in recent days that he has started messing up.”
After a prolonged debate, the House resolved that a status enquiry be done on the operations of the NRC and the committee should report to the House in four weeks.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
