Nigerians will soon begin to embark on an inter-state journey without the fear of rude encounters with cattle on the highway. This is because the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, has decided to return to that era when cattle owners can check in their animals into the train, and travel with ease across the country, from the northern part to the south part of the country.
This news came from Mr. Fidet Okhiria, managing director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation. He said the corporation will soon resume transportation of cattle from the northern part of the country to the south, through the Warri-Itakpe route.
Mr. Okhiria was speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Wednesday. This is an indication that the government may be walking it’s talk on the eradication of conflict between herders and farmers in Nigeria, first to save lives and then remove one of the impediments towards increase in food production in the country. This is particularly so as the announcement came hours after President Bola Tinubu told Nigerians that he was creating a new Ministry of Livestock Development. The president said the new ministry was part of efforts to tackle the clashes between farmers and herders, a conflict that has negatively impacted official efforts to bring about massive production of food and end the food insecurity at the local level, while also exporting to other countries.
The NRC suspended cattle transport by rail in 2017, citing technical problems.
Okhiria assured that before the last quarter of this year, the NRC will welcome herders back on the train. They will, however, be able to move from Kogi State (Itakpe town) to Warri in Delta State. What that means is that, in the meantime, herders who want to use the services of NRC will find their way, by road, to Kogi State in the North Central geopolitical zone before they can board the train to Warri in the south south geopolitical zone.
The NRC MD said the service of the corporation was being modernised with the acquisition of special wagons that he said are already being assembled in Kajola area of Oyo state. Those wagons, he said, are designed for cattle.
He said, “We have built 15 wagons for cattle and maybe in the next month or two they will be sent from Itakpe to Warri to boost the economy.”
Apart from reducing conflicts and making farming of food crops stress-free, the development would aid the health of both the herder and the cattle who had to undertake a tortuous journey of hundreds of kilometres by road and on foot to get to the markets down south.