Gliding from Lagos-Ibadan-Lagos
Taking a train ride is not a common activity in Nigeria, but with the new and efficient Lagos to Ibadan train service, that is about to change.
Commuting across three cities — Lagos, Abeokuta, and Ibadan — is now as cheap as 2600 naira and as short as two and a half hours if you’re going the entire 156 kilometres from Lagos to Ibadan.
I have driven from Lagos to Ibadan a few times and between Lagos and Abeokuta many more times. Driving ought to give you more privacy and comfort, but you are only as comfortable as the never-ending road constructions and snarling traffic of the 127-kilometer long Lagos-Ibadan expressway permit you. The Lagos-Abeokuta stretch is an even worse mess. The buses at Ojota or Berger bus terminals are not an advisable option. I had to switch to the Siennas and Salon cars plying the route to enjoy some level of comfort.
But there’s a brand new world. What one could be excused to call the BuhariTrain is opening up an actual new world for commuters. Traveling from the Mobolaji Johnson station on Murtala Muhammed Way Yaba to the Obafemi Awolowo Station in Moniya is like gliding across sceneries — squalid and verdant sceneries.
Lagos has the worst sceneries, unfortunately. As a farmer, I am disappointed that the vast greens of the hinterlands are not serving their natural purpose — farming. This would have been a sight to behold as the train slithers across the backyards of the cities with provincials waving, just staring, or simply minding their business. But it doesn’t matter where you sit — aisle or window — you’d get a good view of everything.
Babatunde Raji Fashola, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, Samuel Akintola, etc. — the stations from Agege to Papalanto, Laderin, and Ibadan are named after prominent political and activist figures. I think more women should have been on the list including the martyr, Stella Adadevoh. Nonetheless, the facade of each station is quite grand, and I expect each one to be beautiful inside out when they are all fully completed. For now, only the Yaba station seems to have been fully completed, and it’s quite exquisite.
The standard coach — or economy class, if you don’t want to be pretentious — is just as good as the business and first-class cars in my opinion. First-class tickets are almost always unavailable according to anecdotes. Shall we boil that down to the Nigerian Factor? 6000 naira is not a helluva price to pay for one of the 24 first-class seats.
Thanks to the ride, I have now met a celebrity at a place other than an airport. I hope the politicians will come down to earth and join the bandwagon because it is quite safe — you have to show an I.D to get a ticket and there is security on board. Train rides are cheaper, safer, and less disastrous to the environment.
I expect that there will be shops for vendors in the nearby future, but so far there has been no menace of hawkers at either end even though I did manage to buy a mask on the premises when the one I had with me failed me and I have seen PoS operators doing their thing on both ends.
I have always threatened that I would leave Lagos for Ibadan once there is a functional train service, now there is but I have to eat my words for now. There are only two schedules — one out of Lagos and Ibadan in the morning and the other way round in the evening. The two trains actually meet halfway somewhere in Abeokuta. Kudos to the NRC for punctuality, 8 am and 4 pm every day are as sacrosanct as day and night and I hope it stays that way. When there are more daily trips then I will actually ship out of the city of Lagos for the laidback Ibadan or sleepy Egbaland.
About Moniya. Not a few Ibadan regulars have pointed out how distant the station is from the city centre, many actually prefer the Dugbe station. But considering the line is to extend all the way to Kano, Moniya might be more practicable on the grand scale.
First-time travellers must be aware that leaving the Obafemi Awolowo station at night (on the 6.45 pm arrival) is not as easy as it is on the Lagos end. Moniya is indeed a backwater town. The red sand road from the station turns right toward Iseyin and left toward Ojoo (after IITA)which is the nearest big market centre. On a good day, the University of Ibadan is actually between 25 and 40 minutes away. The nearest hotel if you don’t want to travel in the dark is this one. I hope savvy investors will do the needful in due course.
Kaduna-Abuja, Itakpe-Warri, and Lagos-Ibadan lines are perhaps the precursors of a new era of intra-national transportation of persons and cargos. While the economists and politicians can worry about the fine details of repaying the huge loans incurred to achieve these necessary economic infrastructures, everyday Nigerians can continue to glide from coast to hinterland or vice versa for business, social and personal reasons.
