" We Will Not Approve The Construction Of The New railway Line From The North To Niger Republic Says Parliament. The joint committee...

  "We Will Not Approve The Construction Of The New railway Line From The North To Niger Republic Says Parliament.

The joint committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives in Nigeria on land and water transport have criticized Minister of Transport Chibuike Amaechi's plan to build a new modern railway line from Kano to Maradi while a smaller road will be built in other parts of the country.

Lawmakers were outraged when Amaechi presented his ministry’s 2022 budget to the committees. The Daily Trust quotes Amaechi as saying that the road will connect Nigeria with the rest of West Africa, and the railway line is 284 kilometers long.

He said the road would boost the Nigerian economy.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Water Transport, Senator Danjuma Goje, and the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee, Mr. Pat Asadu, have condemned what they call discrimination in other parts of the country over the construction of the railway. The chairpersons of the two committees urged the minister to explain why the same roads should not be built anywhere across the country.Pat Asadu asked Amaechi to explain why he would build a 284-kilometer modern railway line with Nigerian money borrowed for Nigerians to the Republic of Niger while renovating and rebuilding a small railway line from Maiduguri to Port Harcourt. ”

The committee leaders said this was a threat to Nigeria's unity.

For his part, Amaechi said the diversity of the runways to be built at high speeds and said it was uncertain if Nigeria would get the money to build the new modern runway. He also said that discussions on the loan to build the Kano to Maradi road had not yet been finalized.

Source Idon mikiya