Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo has criticised Goodluck Jonathan for lacking vision in the rehabilitation of the Nigerian railways.

Nigerian Bulletin reports that the Jonathan administration had embarked on the rehabilitation of the railway system abandoned by previous governments, with a view of overhauling the sector which had decayed for years.

According to Obasanjo, the railway lines which were constructed in 1903, had become obsolete, hence they could not match the modern global trends.

 “For what reason should anybody in his right senses in Nigeria of today believe that rehabilitating the railway system which was completed in 1903 to carry three million tonnes of goods is what we need today,” he said.


Obasanjo noted that the system was divided into Eastern and Western sections, and lamented that the latter caused a whopping 8.3 billion Dollars.

He said there was no reason upon the earth why the rehabilitated railway system of Nigeria today could serve Nigerians.

“If Nigeria would achieve the vision 20-20-20, we would need a first class land, water and air transportation, and good land transportation can only be railway and roads,”Obasanjo stressed.

Meanwhile, political activist and national publicity secretary of pan-Yoruba sociopolitical organisation, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, has advised the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan, to seek for God’s forgiveness for allegedly paying some Nigerians to write negative reports about former President Olusegun Obasanjo.