The Decline of Kafanchan Railway Town

The commissioning of a  railway station in  Kafanchan, southern Kaduna state in 1926, accelerated the development of the town, as people trooped there from across the country in search of greener pasture. For decades, commercial and business activities in the town flourished as a result of the establishment of the   Kafanchan railway station by the […]

The commissioning of a  railway station in  Kafanchan, southern Kaduna state in 1926, accelerated the development of the town, as people trooped there from across the country in search of greener pasture. For decades, commercial and business activities in the town flourished as a result of the establishment of the   Kafanchan railway station by the Nigerian Railway Corporation.

Kafanchan railway station sits on the rail line connecting Plateau, Nassarawa, Benue and Port Harcourt. The transfer of railway workers from other stations in the west and eastern region to the station, also led to an expansion in the town which was hitherto unknown before the station was sited. Hence, the popular slogan of the NRC in Kafanchan “No railway, no Kafanchan”.

Traders and farmers alike transported their goods from the North to the East and from the East to the North, vice-versa through the station. Some of them traded at the premises of the railway station.

The wares, especially food stuff, sold at the railway station market, were the cheapest.  This made the town to become the commercial hub of Kaduna, the Northern region capital as it was then. The siting of the station ushered in social amenities to the town.

Sunday Trust gathered that the railway engineers were the ones who designed and constructed the major roads in the town. The post office, NITEL, NEPA or PHCN and the present General Hospital of Kafanchan, are all on railway land. Some of their structures belong to the NRC.

Recalling the glorious days of Kafanchan, a 96-year-old railway trader, Alhaji Umar Mohammed, popularly known in the town as Baba Umoru, said he started trading in the town shortly after the late premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, was assassinated in 1966.

“I brought some pairs of ‘bata,’ I mean local slippers, wallets, trousers and shirts from Kano to the Kafanchan railway station for sale. I sold all the goods without stress. That was how I started coming to trade from Kano. I was not the only one coming. Traders were bringing their goods from the west and east for trading. Our business was booming,’’ he said.

Afterwards, he said he relocated from Kano to Kafanchan, to consolidate on his growing businesses. He said he brought his wife and two children along with him to the town.

According to Baba Umoru, only a few houses were in the town as at that time and that there were no tarred roads or electricity in the town. He said the population of people in Kafanchan was in hundreds. He said when the NRC management in Kafanchan was granting vendorship to traders, he was among the first set of beneficiaries.

“I later extended my business to other railway towns like Kuru, Bauchi, Nassarawa and Egumale in Benue state. You know, no business will flourish without credit. As a permanent trader in railway, before pay time, I give credit to railway workers. And during railway pay time, I followed the pay-train to collect my monies. There were not many banks at that time, so the management of the NRC used the railway to pay their workers salaries. They called the train, pay-train. Many of my colleagues trading in railway stations have died.’’ he said.

On the declining fortunes of the railway transport in Nigeria, Baba Umoru blamed government for neglecting the sector over the years. “It is the fault of the government because they allowed the sector to collapse because of lack of funds and dilapidated infrastructure,” he added.

For the country to move forward, he said the railway transport system must be revived,   and that the government, on its part, must be committed to the maintenance and running of the properties of the corporation.

“The downturn of the railways made me to lose over two million naira, because most of the railway workers I sold goods to on credit are nowhere to be found,” he said.

Malam Abubakar Labaran, who was already a railway locomotive driver by 1967, said the fortunes of the railway turned sour in the 1980s during the era of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. To address the dwindling fortunes of the railway, the government invited the Railway Indian Technical Expert (RITE) to assist in running the sector.

“They did well because the sector bounced back but when their contract expired, President Shagari pushed for its renewal. But the Senate at that time refused to grant him the approval, because Nigerians at the top level of the railways wrote to the Senate, condemning the way the Indians were managing the corporation. That was how the problems started. If the railway transport is functioning well in Europe, America and Asia, I wonder why ours is not,” he lamented.

He said he joined the services of the railway, when he could not secure admission into secondary school following the civil war. “I am not regretting working for the NRC. The joy of any young boy then was to join the railway. There were no industries then, and things were going fine,’’ he said.

He attributed the youth restiveness in the town to lack of employment opportunities occasioned by the collapse of the railway transport. He advised the government to intensify efforts to revive the sector.

A retired railway worker based in Kafanchan, Mu’azu Yusuf, accused Nigerian transporters of sabotaging government efforts to revive the system. According to Yusuf who retired as Senior Driver Operation (SDO), government must map out a strategy to deal with all those making brisk business with the collapse   of the system.

“A sizable percentage of accidents on Nigerian roads are as a result of the poor state of the railway system. If the railway is working, all the trailer owners would be rendered useless, and accidents will be reduced drastically, but they don’t want it,” he said.

Giving a background into the establishment of the Kafanchan railway station, the Public Relations Officer of the NRC in Kafanchan, Mr Abdulrauf Akinwoye,   said available records showed that it was the railway that founded Kafanchan as a town.

“Before the advent of the railway, there was no town like Kafanchan. The first set of people who migrated to the town came after the establishment of our station.  This is why our slogan goes, ‘no Railway, no Kafanchan’. Railway discovered the town like many other towns in the country,” he said.

According to the NRC spokesperson, over 80 percent of the land in Kafanchan town belongs to the railway, and   the Kafanchan township stadium was built for the railway football club before it was relinquished to the government.

He attributed the cause of the declining fortunes of the corporation to total neglect by previous governments could and expressed optimism that the system would soon bounce back with the commitment showed by the present administration.

In 2008, the Kaduna state government, as part of efforts to revive the rail transport system, partnered with the management of the NRC to rehabilitate some locomotives under Public Private Partnership (PPP). The train which was popularly called ‘Namadi train’ worked for some time before it stopped operations.

Commenting on the Namadi train, the Kafanchan NRC spokesperson said they stopped operations as a result of lack of locomotives and lubricating oil. He said discussions between the state government and the corporation have gone far, assuring that soon, the rail would bounce back.