To start with, this letter is to our elected political leaders/ministers from Kaduna and Kano states. I hope it will get to you through the power of both social and conventional media.
Your Excellencies, as you are all aware “lobbying” is “legitimate” in politics. As our elected /appointed leaders, we need dividend of democracy through your collective hard-work. My major demand or an appeal to you as my own lobbying to you is for you to work as a team in order to lobby from the authorities concerned for the just approved $5.3bn Ibadan-Kano standard gauge rail project of the federal government to start from both ends of the project rather than to only start from one end.
Executing the project from both ends is doable, but only if you lobby. You may recall that the going expansion of Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria to Kano expressway which is about 375.4km is being done simultaneously. The Section 1 of the Abuja-Kano project starts from Zuba junction and terminates at the Kaduna Western Bypass in Kaduna with an approximate length of 165km; Section II begins from the Kaduna – Zaria road at the Kawo bridge junction and terminates in Zaria with a length of 73.40km, while Section III connects Zaria town to Kano State with a length of 137.00km.
However, it is on record that the project concerned started from Atlantic Ocean Port of Lagos and will end in Kano near Niger Republic border which is about 2,733KM. More so, It is now a public knowledge that the Buhari administration in its first term has nearly delivered 156km of the project ( from Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan section) which will very soon be commissioned. On the other hand, the remaining part will “start” from Ibadan through Oyo- Niger-Kaduna to Kano is about 2,577km.
However, our political leaders must be reminded that from Kaduna to Kano is about 235.5km. In view of the above, Let’s lobby for the project to “start” from Kano to Kaduna section of the project simultaneously too so that we can meet somewhere . I so move!
Nurudeen Dauda [email protected]
