Buhari Under Fire Over Construction Of Rail Line From Nigeria To Niger Republic

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to be a patriot and statesman by building national strategic infrastructures such as railways, bridges, roads and other assets within Nigeria.

HURIWA said Buhari should use Nigerian funds to build assets for the nation rather than building for other countries

The rights group was reacting to the building of railway lines to Maradi, Niger Republic.

Buhari had on Tuesday flagged off the $1.9bn rail line connecting Nigeria to the Niger Republic.

However, the group faulted Buhari for wasting public funds on building a rail line connecting Nigeria to the Niger Republic when the Southern part of the country has no functional rail lines.

The rights group advised in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf.

According to HURIWA: “President Muhammadu Buhari should be a patriot and statesman by building national strategic infrastructures such as railways, bridges, roads and other assets within the Federal Republic of Nigeria with Nigerian public fund rather than fritter and waste callously public resources of Nigeria on building Railway lines to Maradi in the Niger Republic.”

The group faulted “Buhari’s futile effort to justify this illegal expenditure of over a billion United States dollars to build railway lines to the Niger Republic when the entire South East of Nigeria and the major parts of the Niger Delta regions have no functional railways.”

“In any case, the President is committing illegality by deploying borrowed funds to set up infrastructures in another Country but will force Nigeria to repay the loan from China which was never spent to the benefits of Nigeria,” the statement added.