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16km Rail For 16 Years Is Absolute Failure, GRV Hits Lagos Govt
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party's (LP) candidate for governor of Lagos State in 2023, claims that the 16-year completion of "16km" of the 27-kilometer Blue Line Rail by All Progressives Congress (APC) regimes is "an absolute failure."
On Tuesday, the GRV-nominated LP candidate made an appearance as a guest on Channels Television's Sunrise Daily breakfast programme.
Since former governor Bola Tinubu, who is currently the President, launched the Lagos rail network project in 2003, there has been a lengthy history of setbacks and dithering.
Colour coding was used for the rail project according to location. The Red Line (Agbado to Marina), Yellow Line (Otta to Iddo), Brown Line (Mile 12 to Marina), Green Line (Marina to Lekki) and Blue Line (Marina to Okokomaiko) were all codenamed.
After former governor Babatunde Fashola started work on the 27-kilometer Blue Line Rail, the project was delayed until 2019 when new governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu took over.
The 13-kilometer Blue Line's first phase, which comprises five stops/stations (Marina, National Theatre, Iganmu, Alaba, and Mile 2), was opened last year, while the Red Line opened this past week.
According to Rhodes-Vivour, Lagosians need to "understand what is truly happening to their commonwealth" and not become sidetracked.
"The blueline is 16 kilometres of rail; it took 16 years to get there. A contract was signed for approximately 27 to 29 kilometres, but it was terminated at 16 km. According to the government's plan throughout the previous 17 and 18 years, there should have been a total of approximately 175 km they’ve barely done 10% of that in 16 years.
"How many years will it take to complete a 160km if the blue line is taking 16 years to complete?" he questioned.
The leader of the Liberal Party stated that average people can never achieve greatness, and if the government is unable to complete the project, the private sector ought to be enlisted to complete it. Since it takes 16 years to build 16 km of rail, this is an international failure. It is wholly ineffective. Unfortunately, as Nigerians, we've reached a point where we'll take mediocrity at any level.