Prof Asenime advocates rail transport for cheaper conveyance of bulky goods …knocks government’s penchant for constructing unviable airports
By Cyriacus Nnaji:
Prof Asenime Charles Ojima, the former Dean, School of Transport and Logistics, Lagos State University (LASU) has called for the construction of more rails in order to ensure cheaper means of transporting bulky goods in the country.
The erudite Professor decried a situation whereby state governments abandon critical infrastructural projects that would benefit their people more only to embark on construction of airports even when they know such airports lack economic viability.
Asenime who made the advocacy during the 5th CARISCA Supply Chain Summit which took place at the Marriott Hotel, Ikeja GRA, on July 18, 2025, also stated that the money used in the construction of such unprofitable airports should have been used for putting up more rails so that bulky goods could be moved through them.
Asenime lambasted some state governments for placing their priority wrongly. “You don’t need an airport in Ebonyi, I keep saying it. Link Ebonyi by rail to Enugu, to carry your goods and everything will be cheaper, the money they spend on the airport would have been use in other things. In Edo State, they say they want more airports, when in Edo it is only two flights that land in a day, so why do you need more airports, these are the things we looked at, to look at support infrastructure as against what logistics and supply chain is all about. That is the area I spoke on.
Speaking further on the need for more rails and other impactful infrastructure projects that could add value to citizen’s lives, rather than construction of unviable airports, he said “Nobody can stop them, it is ego thing. When I was governor, I was the one that built airport in the state, that is what they are doing, it is misplaced priority.
“You don’t need airports in Ogun State and Oyo State when there are airports in Lagos, there is a rail track that run from Ogun to Ibadan, all they need to do is to connect to the federal rail, and bring whatever they want to bring from Abuja or anywhere to that place, but because they want to show, I am the one that did this, that is the problem.
“If you go to Delta State for instance, there is an airport in Asaba, there is an airport in Osubi, less that 150 kilometers, then from Osubi Airport to Benin Airport about 100 kilometers, so within an area of 250 kilometers we have three airports that are not viable. Out of 25 airports are viable, Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. Kano becomes viable only during hajj, after that no flight comes to Kano. Airports are built based on economic traffic, if the traffic is low, you don’t need an airport. Rail is the answer, we should all be able to support, let’s expand the rail network so that we can expand one of the most efficient, smooth flowing logistics in the country,” he stated.
Speaking on the place of rural roads necessary for the movement of products from the rural to urban areas, he said “The rural roads are there, it is part of the infrastructural facilities I discussed, we are talking about movement of goods from one region to another region, if you take it from the farm to the hub where the rail is, that is where it would go very very far, it is about getting things out at a cheaper and more efficient manner. The rural roads are there, all we need to do is to make them better so that they will be able to evacuate to the hubs where the rails can pick them, rails are the way to go. If you go outside the country, everybody uses rail, underground, and they are so fast.
Speaking on the CARISCA summit, he said, “The programme is an eye opener, because a lot of things were assumed that are not only true or half truth but the conference has given us a wider perspective of what to expect or what happens outside, there are times we don’t believe Africa programmes are working, but they are working as we could see from some presentations. It is not good to stay in your corner and say you know everything, it is good to learn from others who have gone out, who are making it work.
“So in this conference we have a lot of takeaways for our students and us that are lecturers have somethings we have learnt to teach our students to expand our knowledge of learning in logistics and supply chain.
“The Lecture I gave is about our transport resources that can support logistics, it is good to say this is what supply chain supposed to be, but what are the resources to support logistics? If you have good roads, water, aviation and rail, we are not looking at all those but that is the area I looked at, to see what we have on ground as our transport resources to support logistics, unfortunately, it is low, and you see logistics is very important, especially road logistics and inland water ways. So we are hoping that as we leave here we are going to make economic recommendations, why can’t we expand out rail network?” He queried.
