Saraki Seeks Railways Reformation For Economic Revival

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, disclosed that the reform of the nation’s railways system is critical to the much-needed economic revival in the country. He stated this after receiving report of the Technical Committee on the National Railways Commission Bill from Chairman, Senate Committee on Land Transport, Gbenga Ashafa in his office .

Saraki reaffirmed that the commitment of the 8th Senate towards the passage of the bill before the end of its first session. He said the report goes to show that the 8th Senate is committed to work with experts in the private sector, to put in place necessary machineries to put the nation’s economy back on track.

“I believe everybody will benefit from the content of this report because no economy can develop without an efficient mass transportation system,” he said.

“We all acknowledge that the government alone cannot provide the funding needed to upgrade the rail infrastructure, therefore, the bill will make provision that would allow the private sector to participate and subsequently take the burden of funding off the government.

“There is no way we can address our mass transportation challenge without a direct engagement with the private sector. With a good and efficient transportation system in place, people will talk less about the cost of fuel,” he added.

He ,however, expressed optimism that the House of Representatives would give the bill speedy consideration and passage when sent to the lower house for concurrence.

 “This is one way we can address the bottlenecks in the land transportation sector. History is being made as we have opened another chapter in our legislative functions.

We must get the railways system on the right track. Public sector alone cannot address the issues. We need partnership from the private sector, which was the essence of inaugurating this Technical Committee,” Saraki said.

With this report, the Senate can comfortably debate the Bill and come out with acceptable policies that will give life back to the sector. I am confident that the NRC Bill will scale through third reading and passed in the Senate before the end of this session,” he noted.