The massive ongoing Train transportation project is being brought to life by the Buhari administration which came to, and is holding on to, power on three legs – Security, Economy and Anti-corruption. Based on this, one would expect that any project executed by this administration would be done in such a way that corruption would not be part of its outcome. One would expect that wealth appropriation and rent seeking would have been systemically dealt with before launching such a program, otherwise the war against corruption becomes a war of convenience.
The Abuja – Kaduna is the first train service to be functional attracting huge patronage. Unfortunately, its ticketing operation is now massively characterized by corruption. The system they are running used to be the way with airline tickets in the past. It was that tickets are bought up by touts and later sold at exorbitant prices off counter to genuine passengers.
In the Abuja – Kaduna train service, the tickets are now bought up by touts at the official price of N1,500 and are later sold to intending passengers at N5,000 and above, even including those who stand up between Abuja and Kaduna and vice versa! Interestingly, some seats are vacant when there are not enough people to buy the “touted” tickets which are then later recycled – market inefficiency!
Airlines have succeeded in getting rid of this type of corruption in Nigeria. I always book my flights on my telephone and I know that the closer I am to the flight date, the more expensive the flight becomes. While I can question this later being a form of corporate exploitation we can leave it for now. After all, why would a service provider be allowed to charge different prices for the same service? The airlines adjust the proximity prices to the level that guarantees their profit margin, not necessarily in reward of their operational efficiency. But this is topic for another day.
So why can’t the train use the same ticketing service as the airlines whereby passengers can book and pay online for their tickets? Why must the train provide the opportunity for ticket touts to function? Should the government NOT have subjected the ticketing process to a vetting that ensures ret opportunities are eliminated from the process? Then there is the more classic economic aspect.
Touting and rent opportunity, aspects of economic inefficiency, exist in a market economy when demand is far more than supply. So why can’t the government who is providing the train service increase its supply and adjust its price to maximize its profit and its investment opportunity? Government monopoly must never provide exploitative opportunities otherwise it fails, and it is no longer in the interest of the people. So, in this bewildering instance, a government with a mission to fight corruption should not have allowed a system that promotes corruption. One would expect that an anti-corruption government would always operate with a system that is totally inoculated against corrupt inclinations. So, we can ask: does this government vet its initiatives in a way that ensures its processes are adequately inoculated against corruption?
The train service is not an inherited system. It was established by this administration. Or is it that we are destined never get it right? If the Nigerian Railway Corporation does not know what to do, It can simply adopt the existing airline ticketing system and save us this embarrassment! If this anomaly continues, it will be a huge shame on this government and a major challenge to our national ethics.
National Orientation Agency, where are you?
