A Facebook user, Tesem Akende, has recounted his bitter-sweet experience after entering a train from Kaduna to Abuja. According to him, there’s a massive corruption going on in the sector as he called on anti-graft agency EFCC to look into the matter. Read what he shared below;
I arrived Idu train terminal at 6:25am, on Monday November 27, 2017 and headed straight for the ticketing booth. It had been a really good weekend. Visiting Abuja once in awhile from Kaduna is always a chill pill for me – this wasn’t different at all!
My friend would tell me; “Tesem, you work hard, you should ball hard too.” Trust me, I have been very obedient since then. O, how we nailed at Cold stone creamery and Domino’s pizza in Wuse II on Sunday night, thanks to my friend, Olalekan Michael Onilede.
At Idu, I was impressed with the infrastructure, my first visit/experience apparently. I took a few photos, and at 7am on the dot, the journey back to Kaduna began. We had a brief stop over at the Kubwa station to have more passengers on board, and what started very well soon turned sour.
Passengers with tickets in hand began boarding, and before long everywhere was filled. Each coach I gathered has a carrying capacity of 88 passengers, but on this day carried far beyond that number.
Where are we supposed to seat? The passengers with tickets in hand asked. ‘Abeg, make una just manage,’ an official replied. “Manage! What does that suppose to mean?” An aged woman obviously in her 60s asked. “Why did you sell the tickets in the first place? Was there no communication between Idu and Kubwa on ticket sales? Why should we stand, while others seat when we’ve paid the same fare?” Several questions were advanced, and the only answer was – “abeg, make una just manage.” “But this wasn’t what we bargained for,” she insisted. “Gentlemen, honestly I shouldn’t be standing at my age for two hours plus on this journey, can’t you understand”?
Out of empathy I gave the aged woman my seat, and offered to stand – after all, I’m still far from the 60 mark.
“Ma’am, please how much did you pay”, I asked? Behold, it was the same amount, N1050 only.
But looking closely, a seat number was indicated on my ticket and other Idu commuters, but not so on some of theirs (Kubwa squad). My thought; perhaps some of those tickets were illegal after all. Some chap could just be playing smart, and not remitting the proceeds to government, I thought again. About thirty minutes into the journey, the standers devised ways to make themselves comfortable. Some squatted while others leaned to funny spots raging.
But their rage had an outburst when we arrived the Jere station, and the officials began another ticket verification exercise. “Your tickets please…your tickets please…your tickets please”…they hummed. “See, can’t you guys just hide your faces in shame”, a raging commuter vibrated.
And in a fireworks approach, one of the officials responded – “Abeg, na our work we de do o, make una no vex.” That phase passed, and we managed to arrive the Rigasa train terminal in Kaduna.
My very good friend, Patrick Oga had been standing by to fetch me, and off we cruised away. But my mind wouldn’t stop pondering.
A while ago, my friend TirNom Dogo had shared a similar tale with me. She called hers, ‘original suffer head’. We further outlined the pluses the rail system has brought.
It’s indeed a laudable project that has received several accolades. Thanks to the PDP government for initiating and largely executing, and yes, the APC’s for getting it running. But all said, I implore related authorities to keep an eye on operations at the rail track. Traffic at the train stations has tremendously increased, following the unrelenting kidnap cases along the Kaduna-Abuja highway.
I believe considering another rail track now is a stitch in time that would save far beyond the proverbial nine. The anti graft agencies must also up their game and fish out the bad eggs rubbishing the good work by government.
EFCC, this is also corruption – it shouldn’t be in our country!
Newsmen, lets also take investigative journalism a notch higher, and visit the train stations.
God bless Nigeria, my fatherland.
My name is Tesem Akende, I’m a concerned Nigerian.
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