My Lagos to Ibadan Train Trip Experience

There’s always a lot of travelling happening during the Christmas period. I guess that’s why the Nigerian government announced a free train service that started on the 24th of December and ended on the 4th of January. A few days after New Year’s Day, my mum, sister, aunt, her two children and I decided to go on a train trip to Ibadan because we wanted to see the University of Ibadan Zoological Garden, and it was free, so why not.

Like all free things are, the Mobolaji Johnson train station at Alagomeji was packed with people using the opportunity to return after the Christmas celebration or others like us, who were going sightseeing. Our departure time was at 10:00 am, and they were on time; the train was airconditioned, had clean toilets, a waste bin, charging points at every seat; I was pretty impressed. This experience immediately changed my notion of Nigerian trains being rusty, dirty, and smelly.

Going back home to Lagos was the real problem. A standard train trip to and fro Lagos and Ibadan is ₦2,600, and we got back from the Zoological Garden a little after 4:00 pm. The last train ride we were going to take was scheduled for 6:00 pm, and yet the train station officials claimed that the train tickets had finished, which was quite unlikely because tickets were to be given out an hour or an hour 30 minutes before the next trip. I didn’t know which was more unsettling, a man who had been there like 2hrs 30 minutes before us who stated that the officials said the tickets sold out as at the time he arrived or another man who had been there since 7:00 am and was just able to get a ticket for the last trip by 6:00 am. The worst part of it all was that we weren’t sure that we would even be able to get a ticket the next day, being the last day of the free rides. We were stranded and confused because we didn’t plan to spend money since the train rides were free. We later found out that passengers and some officials keep aside tickets and sell at peak periods to very desperate people, then uber drivers had hiked their prices and were charging about ₦30,000 to take people back to Lagos.

It is unfortunate that government officials and even citizens are always ready to exploit others and are constantly looking for ways to make money off others. It’s issues like these that the government should pay attention to and ensure that checks and balances are put in place.