Nigerian Build Monorails Abroad While FG Enriches Chinese Coys
Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.
A Nigerian and Canada-based engineer, Jude Igwemezie, won a $500 million contract to build a monorail network in Iraq as far back as 2009.
According to the reporter, Alexander Otti, Mr. Igwemezie trained and lives in Canada and also heads TransGlobim International, the engineering company that won the bid.
The contract is to construct what is described as “a viable rail transportation network” for the city of Najaf.
The network will connect three Islamic holy and historic mosques in Imam Ali, Kufa and Sahle.
An elated Mr. Igwemezie was then quoted as saying that the project was billed to be completed in three years, and will be built in two phases.
The first phase, he said, will cover the design, construction and operation of the system while the second phase will involve the expansion of the system and its extension to the Najaf airport and the final phase.
Frustration of selling good ideas in Nigeria
Mr. Igwemezie reportedly claimed that he had been involved in negotiation with Nigerian officials for several years months to construct several rail lines in the country.
He, however, disclosed that it took “only two months to get the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) executed with Iraqi officials”.
Hinting at his frustration to offer his services to Nigeria, Mr. Igwemezie said, “as a Diaspora person, I kept coming back, knocking, to help Nigeria.”
Related Posts
Ironically, while Nigerians, especially in diaspora, are making breakthroughs in the field of science and technology, the Nigerian government is enriching China with several multi-billion contracts.
On its website, TransGlobim claimed that as a privately owned consortium of internationally-recognized and multi-disciplinary engineering organizations, it has experts and specialists in various fields of transportation and infrastructure.
It says that it “has adequate personnel capabilities to implement any engineering project from start to finish.
“This includes design and construction, management of contractors and subcontractors, manufacturing and requisite supply needed to complete the project.”
Presently, China is handling the construction of railway lines in Nigeria, including the completed Abuja-Kaduna rail line.
Also, the government is heavily indebted to the Chinese government over series of loans borrowed under “ridiculous” conditions.
At least three countries — Sri Lanka, Zambia, and recently Djibouti — have had to concede their federal projects to China over failure to pay back according to agreements.
The President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government of Nigeria is yet to hearken to the warnings by eminent Nigerians, including the former Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi over continued loans from China.
