By Uche Nnadozie
Recently, Chinedu Gbabedo Rhodes-Vivour posted on X where he claimed that former President Goodluck Jonathan paid in full for the Lagos Red Line rail project with the state government left with a supervisory role only. “Everything from lines to stations to signals and bridges or tunnels had been costed and paid for by the Jonathan Goodluck administration since 2013, Rhodes-Vivour told his exasperated audience.
In the naivety he often exhibits, the former governorship candidate of the Labour Party did not know that it is practically impossible for anybody to pay for a contract sum in full. He may go further to tell us how much the “contract” was worth in 2013 and how much it is worth today. In the meantime, it will be good if his minders show him the Public Procurement Act. Would he read?
His vacuous claim that the Federal Government paid for a rail project way back in 2013 is the sort of myth told by Europeans when they “discovered” the source of the River Niger, whereas they were led to the scene by the locals!
In his X statement, the LP kindergarten politician attached a video link to his story. And what was there? A Jonathan campaign jingle highlighting possible rail works (in Lagos) using the colonial rail wagons and rolling stock as props! He made so many puerile, if not childish claims which, to be honest, do not deserve appraisal. Being in the opposition does not mean being dumb. This guy still needs to understand what politics entails and stop displaying his ignorance in the public space.
Gbadebo has taken revisionist ignorance to a new low. It would have been better to ignore him if not the continuous usurping of the hearts and minds of young people, him inclusive on the altar of new media “activism”.
His political baptism notwithstanding, his ultra revision of facts and attributing a massive and revolutionary rail project to Jonathan’s administration speak more to his little mind than blistered opposition politicking.
The audacity to parrot innuendos, barefaced lies and keep a straight face, not minding the damage to his digital footprint and unsolicited intervention over the well-celebrated inauguration of the 37km rail service is a testament to the luck of Lagosians to have dodged such a disaster during last year’s election.
The bland resort to populism by attempting to divert attention from well-earned praise for the Lagos State government over a salutary delivery of first-grade transportation infrastructure is the stuff witchcraft is made of.
It seems to me that this politician hates Lagos. Apart from his apparent ignorance of public administration procedure, his hatred of Lagos has become palpable.
To be clear, the Red Line is a project executed by the Lagos State government. Upfront, Alausa was clear that it would share rail track with the Nigeria Railway Corporation-owned interstate standard gauge built in 2021 by the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Contrary to Gbadebo’s claim, the old railway, which gave way to the new standard gauge route, was a narrow path. Despite his histrionics, facts are sacred, opinion (in this case, propaganda) is free.
Also, the Federal Government-owned Lagos-Ibadan railway has its own dedicated stations, signalisation and operation. The Babajide Sanwo-Olu built Red Line also has distinct platforms, staff and stations, plus other rail related operational furniture.
Gbadebo has no capacity of knowing these things despite claiming Anifowoshe in Ikeja as his voting area. The rail line passes by his polling unit. He is more suited for online exhibitionism without any grounding on the facts and matters of life in Lagos.
It was in 2006 that the World Bank assisted the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) – set up in 2001-2002 by the Bola Tinubu administration in the state to secure approval to develop the Lagos Light-Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) system. The development, a novel by all standards, developed six rail lines and a monorail that will daily move millions of commuters across different parts of the state.
The proposed rail systems are a part of the Lagos Strategic Transport Master (along with the Lagos Urban Transport Project) that seeks to integrate these rail lines, 14 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and 26 water routes. This plan has since been expanded and improved.
Anyone in Lagos not infested by online infantile cheer-mongering virus would not hesitate to give Sanwo-Olu and his predecessors their due props. But for carpet-baggers, nothing is sacred including facts.
| Nnadozie is a public affairs analyst