‘NIGERIA WILL NOT REMAIN THE SAME AFTER THE RAILWAY TRANSFORMATION’ – NRC MD, ENGR. OKHIRIA
By OKI SAMSON
Engineer Freeborn Edentanlen Okhiria, MD, Nigerian Railway Corporation (M) receiving an award plaque from Oki Samson, Publisher, Trek Africa Newspaper (L) while Alhaji Mahmod, Corporate Affairs Manager, NRC looks on.
Engineer Freeborn Edentanlen Okhiria, MD, Nigerian Railway Corporation
The giant strides recorded in the rail transport sector since 2015 is due largely to the Nigerian Railway Master Plan provided the leadership and strategic direction of President Muhammadu Buhari. The Plan has been executed by the unparalleled management capacity of the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Engineer Freeborn Edentanlen Okhiria.
The astute administrator and respected civil servant enjoys extensive relevant experience in the leading government establishment having being one time Railway District Manager (Western, Northern and Lagos Districts) and Director of Mechanical, Electrical Signal and Telecommunication. He actualized the movement by road of locomotives from Apapa Port to Zaria and Enugu due to rehabilitation of the rail line bridge in Northwestern district and also to Abuja for operations in the newly constructed Kaduna-Abuja standard gauge.
The well-versed electrical engineer has fellowship from Nigeria Institute of Mechanical Engineering (NIME), Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), Institute of Strategic Management (ISM) and Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE). He is also a member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Institute of Directors (IOD) and chartered member of Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM).
The award-winning executive spoke on various railway transport and national issues in an exclusive interview he had with Oki Samson of Trek Africa newspaper.
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Trek Africa: What can you say about the personality of your principal, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi
Freeborn Okhiria: Not hiding the truth, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi ensures that anything he believes he makes sure to get the results. And if there are mistakes he doesn’t hesitate to say we missed it here and then retrace his steps. He is an upright person. He has taken the nation’s interest above his personal interest, which is our bane in Nigeria. If we have more people like him, Nigeria will not remain the same.
Trek Africa: the administration of Buhari is being praised for the railway transformation. You are the arrowhead of the plan, how have you been able to resuscitate the important means of transport?
Freeborn Okhiria: Being a railway person, any history of the railway, I know about it. So every little effort to resuscitate the sector counts and we will go a long way with it. When we got a minister that is workaholic and the President is dedicated to the project, we have no other thing than to join hands together to support the effort. We hope it will yield more results as it has started with the Abuja-Kaduna, Itakpe-Warri is coming, Lagos-Ibadan is ongoing. We should continue at this pace. What we do today, we don’t need to do tomorrow. Money spent today will not be spent tomorrow. Some people say we are borrowing but if you don’t have the resources, you have to borrow. If you do it, your children will come and enjoy it rather than not do it and create problems for them in the future for they will have to do it. It is a good infrastructural development strategy.
Trek Africa: How can railway create jobs?
Freeborn Okhiria: Before now, you won’t believe that railway used to have 42,000 employees. When I joined, I think it reduced to 22,000. At a time, it reduced to 6,000 but as expansion continued we are growing back to 10,000. By the time, Lagos-Ibadan comes up this year, we are hoping that there will be an increase but that’s just the direct jobs.
The indirect jobs is so enormous. People get engaged, people do trading within and close to the station. Many people are engaged in the construction, they support the contractors – engineers, technicians. When we took count the last time, we had about 10,000. The more we lay tracks, the more people will be engaged. Anytime you have train stations, development is rapid. People start to build around it sooner, you have places like Oyingbo, Dugbe, Opara in Enugu, Kano, we see quite a lot of development because easy transport provides access to offices, factories. I believe with more tracks on ground there will be more employment.
