By Queen Kunde
The Democratic Front, TDF, has hailed the delivery of 17 locomotive driven containers to the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) facilitated by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration will considerably reverse the trend of food inflation in the country because of its potential to reduce the cost of movement of food items from producers to consumers across the country.
In a statement signed by its Chairman Mallam Danjuma Muhammad and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo, the group observed that the delivery of the containers was not only another huge response to ease food scarcity but also targeted to boost freight operations of the NRC.
They noted that the provision of the containers that will traverse Lagos to Kano is also in conformity with the President’s campaign manifesto.
“We applaud President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the impressive show of efforts in fulfilling his promise by stamping his authority on the development of critical infrastructures that will urgently ease pressures on economy and the people of the country”. The statement read
Listing some of the many advantages, the TDF said that the recent delivery of 17 locomotive wagons from Kano is a confirmation of a successful launch of freight operations by rail and it confirms the dogged mindset and determination of the President to make the Nigerian economy globally attractive and competitive.
It also said that the provision of these items has the potential and capacity to generate a modern and efficient railway system which will contribute meaningfully to the concerted drive towards the realization of $1trn economy as being envisaged.
“We are convinced that the movement of cargos and other heavy-duty equipment across the country by rail will reduce auto crashes and also ease the current pressure on the roads. The menace of haulage lorries will reduce, thereby making the roads safer and more durable, the group insisted.
The statement continued: “Indeed, we confidently envisage that the cargo haulage system will also considerably reverse the trend of food inflation in the country because of the potential of a cheaper movement of food items from the agricultural belt of the North to the South and vice versa.
TDF then posited that the investment in railway services is just one of the efforts by the Tinubu administration to boost the economy since assuming office.
TDF acknowledges that this significant development in the railway transportation sector is just one out of a plethora of achievements by the Tinubu administration since the commencement of its economic reforms.
But the group regretted the actions of “unpatriotic opposition working in cahoots with a group of misled alarmists within the country who rather relish in advancing their selfish political interests by inciting Nigerians against the very hardworking administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the detriment of our collective national patrimony.
“TDF believes that nothing insults the sensibility of Nigerians, more than a political party that inherited a promising and developing economy from the military in May 1999, but squandered the wealth and potentials of the nation within a period of 16 years, leaving the nation in penury and indebtedness. Only for the party to pretend and project itself as the messiah of the people.
“If the PDP had judiciously invested the billions of dollars made from crude oil in 16 years, to develop a modern, national railway transportation system, rehabilitate the state owned refineries for private sector management, construct additional power generation sources like the recently commissioned 800 MW Zungeru Power Station, and mechanize the processes and production of agricultural outputs, the impact of fuel subsidy removal would not have been this harsh on Nigerians.
“The railway transportation sector is currently receiving priority attention from the President, and we expect that the giant strides in the development of railways in Nigeria will continue, “it said.