Between Infrastructure Revamp and Numbing Insecurity

Remarkable infrastructure revamp and numbing security nightmare are two key opposing highlights defining the Muhammadu Buhari presidency. Resolving this peculiar contradiction would help history’s verdict, writes Louis Achi

On Thursday, President Muhanmmadu Buhari inaugurated the commercial operations of Lagos-Ibadan railway project at the Mobolaji Johnson Railway Station, Ebute Metta, Lagos. An obviously elated Buhari described the accomplishment “as another milestone in the drive of this administration to revitalise the railway system and establish it as a choice mode of transportation for both passengers and freight.”

Also, while inaugurating the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure Project, known as Deep Blue project, Buhari said it was the benchmark for maritime security in the West and Central African regions. He noted that the project underscores Nigeria’s commitment to providing the necessary framework, resources and cooperation with other nations and maritime users and contribute to the diversification of the Nigerian economy.

Instructively, on the same day, in an Arise Television interview, the president revealed awareness that a sweeping infrastructural transformation indeed would remain a flight of fancy in an environment devoid of human security.
“Security is paramount and very important as no one will invest in an unsecured environment,” he told his rapt interviewers.

Strangely, in the same breath, perhaps unwittingly signalling a measure of helplessness, the lanky General from Katsina State, urged that the general public should ensure the infrastructure being put in place are protected and not destroyed. How a practically cowed and frustrated ‘general public’ can help effectively police critical infrastructure against the depredations of heavily armed vandals, bandits and terrorists speaks to worrying philosophical governance atrophy in Aso Villa.

It could be recalled that in a report it released in November, last year, Moody’s Investors Service said, Nigeria – Africa’s largest economy – would need to spend at least $3 trillion over 30 years to close its infrastructure deficit. This researched projection would probably have overwhelmed most national leaders. But President Muhammadu Buhari apparently has other ideas.

A powerful vision pulls in ideas, people and other resources, despite the tough challenges. It creates the energy and will to make change happen. It inspires individuals, diverse stakeholders, partnering organisations and institutions to commit, to persist and to give their best.

Has President Buhari demonstrated these virtues within his six years on the saddle – in the spread and sweep of his appointments and quick policy responsiveness to changing governance scenarios? Big question!

It is hardly debatable that lack of infrastructure has been one of the biggest drags on Nigeria’s development trajectory. Rail, road, airport and power projects stretching across Nigeria are either well advanced, recently signed off or just breaking ground in the wake of an infrastructure drive by the administration of President Buhari.

The government is not only focusing on new infrastructure but on the rehabilitation of existing assets and the completion of longstanding projects that have failed to gain traction under previous governments. It can hardly be disputed and bears repeating that Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit have been one of the biggest factors holding back growth and development.

But the problems go beyond funding. Billions of dollars have been sunk into infrastructure projects that have failed to see the light of day or have been abandoned after construction has started as a result of weak institutions, lack of accountability and limited policy consistency across previous administrations. The situation is compounded by graft and the limited maintenance of existing infrastructure.

But beyond the intricacies and special challenges of building critical infrastructure is the issue of security, which has assumed the dimension of an existential threat to Nigeria.
Insecurity and terrorism have been major challenges to the Nigerian government in recent times. The activities of Boko Haram and ISWAP have led to loss of thousands of lives, dislocation of millions and destruction of properties in the country, especially, in the Northern part of Nigeria.

Add this to the spiraling kidnap for ransom (especially school children), rape, armed banditry and murder, alongside the attacks carried out by Fulani herdsmen on many communities in the North and Southern Nigeria and it could easily be appreciated that insecurity is antithetical to infrastructure development. It is now imaginable that a train journey could run into vandalised tracks, resulting in derailment and death for many.

Apparently, against this background, to ensure that the considerable effort of the Buhari administration to turn around the infrastructure deficit, especially, concerning railways, is not sabotaged, the federal government is now considering capital punishment (death penalty) for railway track vandals.

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said this during a Town Hall Meeting on “Protecting Public Infrastructure,” on Monday, June 7, 2021, in Abuja.
According to Amaechi, rail track vandalism is a capital offence and its consequences should be treated as such and worse, the track vandalism is being done in collaboration with foreign partners.

The President Buhari administration has also announced early this year it was forming InfraCo, a public-private infrastructure fund with N1tn ($2.6bn) in seed capital from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority and the Africa Finance Corporation, a mostly privately owned pan-African project finance firm.
InfraCo’s mandate is to finance public asset development, rehabilitate old assets and construct new ones.

The considerable exertions Buhari is making to transform the nation’s decrepit infrastructure will count for little if insecurity is not decisively dealt with. Nigerians will hardly remember that the president made great strides in building infrastructure and tried to write his name in gold.

Beyond rhetoric, in the coming days, he must frontally confront and conquer the shadowy crisis entrepreneurs behind national insecurity for history to pass a favourable verdict on him.
Pix: Buhari in Lagos for Ebute Metta railway station’s inauguration.jpg