From Uche Usim, Abuja
Ideally, traveling by classic train should evoke a sense of nostalgia and adventure for me; as it takes me back to my childhood locomotive experience, but it does not.
Why? This is because the Abuja-Kaduna is not a fun ride but a child of necessity. It is presumed to offer a safer trip as against the road option.
The Kaduna-Abuja road can pass off as one of the deadliest corridors in West Africa. It is regularly “patrolled” by terrorists, despite the fact that Abuja is Nigeria’s seat of power, while Kaduna is the hub of Nigeria’s military hardware.
At both the Kaduna and Abuja ends, the train stations are packed full with top military officers, businessmen, top civil servants, high-ranking politicians and other VIPs.
So, when I boarded the train in Kubwa to Kaduna recently, (a day after rumours that bandits attempted to derail it), fear of a possible catastrophe enveloped me. Rather than relax and enjoy the romance the leisurely paced rail trip offers, I prayed throughout the two-hour journey.
Despite seeing armed security men in all the coaches, I just couldn’t see myself taking in the scenery passing by.
Unlike what happens overseas where you can hop on and off the train along the way and stay overnight at some great hotels, in Nigeria you’re confined to scenery of bushes and undulating hills and you pray the train never develops a fault and abandons you in the middle of nowhere.
I remember asking questions whenever the train stopped only to be told we were not yet at our final destination. At a point, I struck a conversation with the man I shared the seat with just to ease the tension, but I soon discovered that he was more frightened than I was.
He even claimed to have read where the train was attacked by scores of marauding herdsmen. Attempts to convince him it was fake news fell on deaf ears. He quickly spotted some herders afar off and concluded that the end had come.
While I calmed him down, I equally burst into prayers in my heart. After we passed the herders who were clearly far from the rail track, I discovered it was better to leave him alone.
Interestingly, after a solemn praise and worship session, the locomotive roared to a final stop at Rigasa in Kaduna State.
I alighted, prayed once again and dashed to the City Centre for the event I came for.
Coincidentally, I was the guest of China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), the same firm that built the Kaduna-Abuja rail.
I had too many questions to ask the company, but my major takeaway was that the Abuja-Kaduna rail line is one of the first standard gauge railway modernisation projects (SGRMP) undertaken in Nigeria.
The construction of the Abuja-Kaduna rail line was started in February 2011 and completed in December 2014 with China’s support.
By evening, I was done and I quickly dashed to Rigasa. Luckily, I got a ticket on the 5:30pm train to Abuja; but that appeared the greatest mistake of my life. At dusk, shrubs looked like a bunch of terrorists staring at the train and I would quickly duck and pray.
The journey was worrisomely slow, like it had no end. Horrible thoughts kept flooding my mind whenever the train slowed down, but I flushed them all away.
However, a particular thought, obviously from the pit of hell, was constant; “what if this train develops a mechanical fault this night in the middle of nowhere? What will we do? Can another train come? Since I did not have the answers, I posed the questions to the train managers on board and I got the usual default made-in-Nigeria response; “No it won’t happen. We cover this train with the blood of Jesus. Fear not”.
I was totally unsatisfied with what I got from him. I left my seat and began patrolling the coaches in search of anyone I could talk to.
No familiar face on board!
Few weeks after my last trip, my fears are now real. Regular glitches and engine failures have become the rule rather than the exception.
Passengers now fight the on board managers as the locomotive trains pack up in the middle of nowhere.
When would this end?