Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has decried President Muhammadu Buhari’s gloating on infrastructure his administration provided for Nigeria, saying it was another indication that those in the corridors of power do not seem to be in touch with the present reality in the country.
President Buhari on Tuesday, February 22, 2022, said people, especially those from the South West, could have been trekking from Lagos to Ibadan but for the intervention of his administration especially on rail and road projects.
Buhari had stated this when he received in audience a delegation from Kaduna State, led by the Emir of Zazzau, Ahmed Bamalli, and the state’s Deputy Governor, Hadiza Balarabe, at the State House, Abuja.
Acknowledging the primacy of road, rail and power in the growth of a business or country, the president said that this was why his administration focused on the development of infrastructure, pointing to Abuja-Kaduna and Ibadan-Lagos lines.
“The people from South West can tell better because between Lagos and Ibadan by now, if we hadn’t done what we did, people would have been trekking because the road was not there, the rail was not there and there was so much insecurity,” Afenifere quoted President Buhari.
But Afenifere, while appreciating President Buhari on the resuscitation of Lagos-Ibadan railway, in a release signed by its spokesperson, Comrade Jare Ajayi, quickly said it was a height of an unpardonable exaggeration to say that without it people in the South West would have been trekking.
The pan- Yoruba group submitted that the number of people using the rail transport was very small, saying it was so small compared with people using the road that not many felt the impact when it was not available.
“In any case, assuming without conceding that the rail transport is so significant in the life of the people as painted by Mr President, what about several other routes in the South West that have no rail system,” Afenifere said.
So, why has the government not provided rail transport in all these areas so that people would not have to trek? And on the road that the president lamented its absence, whose responsibility is it to provide the road; is it not the government?” it queried.
