Planificación del proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje

people aided the spread of Christianity and Islam through the country. It is important to know that part of the people who worked assiduously for the construction of rail roads were the evangelists who wanted to spread their Christian faith in the interior part of the country. When the railway started operations, it contributed immensely to

the movement of the missionaries to the interior part of Yorubaland and the Eastern part of the country. The missionaries carried out their mission works by establishing mission houses and schools through Nigeria. This was the beginning of the spread of Western education in Nigeria.

6. Job Opportunities: It is on record that railway in Nigeria was the major employer of labour in Nigeria during the colonial period. Hence, it afforded employment for people who were not able to engage themselves in farming activities. Between 1912 and 1955, the estimate figure of employee with the Railway Corporation lingered around forty-two thousand in Nigeria (42,000). Apart from this, indirect jobs were created by this sector with large number of private lock-up shops built along railway terminus servicing the workers and passengers. The wages derived from the employment opportunities it offered improved the standard of living of the people.

In spite of the positive impact of the development of railway in Nigeria, which has been examined above, the introduction of railway transport was not without its negative implications. First is the environmental degradation that it caused. For the most part, the rail tracks were laid and made to pass through thick forest areas, which meant that forests were cleared for the track to be laid. Again, in order to prevent a situation where big trees were felled into the tracks by heavy rains and windstorms during rainy seasons, the perimeter of the track areas were equalled cleared. Moreover, before coal was discovered in Enugu, timber was the only source of fuel, hence, the railways greatly contributed to the rapid deforestation that took place in the early colonial period in Nigeria.

Second, the railway caused a lopsided development in the transport sector and the emergence of new centres of commercial activities. The railway drastically drew away traffic from the waterways to itself, thereby bringing the previously prominent trading ports into serious decline. For instance, the Eastern line diverted trade from the ports of Calabar, Opobo and Oguta to its terminal at Port Harcourt; the Western line, from Warri and Badagry to Lagos. Third, another negative effective of the railway system was in

built over previously uncharted country, through thick forests, over different hill ranges, and were often marked by the gravestones of workers.

Moreover, there was a huge financial strain that railway construction brought about. As the British government was not eager to invest heavily in their colonies as a result of the policy of self sufficiency, funding the huge project became a herculean task. Ralph Austen submitted that “the great financial burden of railway construction in tropical Africa was felt first through the role it gave the state in planning transport and second, through the pressure it put upon African revenue.” Finally, the railway policy was not geared towards the development of the indigenous economy but towards strengthening of the metropolitan economy. The railway in Nigeria and indeed in the whole of colonial Africa clearly depicted the centre-fringe relationship that existed between the colonial powers and the colonial territories.

4.0 CONCLUSION

The development of the railway in Nigeria was primarily intended to facilitate British grand plan to maximally exploit and evacuate primary products as well as the natural resources of the country. However, as the railway served this purpose, it also had enormous impact on the indigenous people of Nigeria. Some of these included: inter-group relations, the emergence of urban centres across the country, growth of internal commerce, supply of European manufactured products, spread of Western education, cultural values and religion, the emergence of a new class of educated elite, job opportunities and cheaper cost of transport. The negative impact included the degradation of the environment and the ecosystem brought about by railway construction, the material tolls and loss of human lives and finally, the economic implication of railway on the Nigerian economy as it was veritable means of the evacuation of the material resources of the country.

5.0 SUMMARY

This unit examined the development of railway transport in Nigeria. Railway construction in Nigeria started towards the close of the nineteenth century. This is understandable because the British government was undecided on what its political and economic obligations were concerning its colonial territories in West Africa. However, the 1884/85 Berlin Conference and intensified rivalry and competition among the European colonial powers made the British government more involved in the affairs of Nigeria. One of the consequences of this increased and direct involvement is the development of railway, which was meant to served economic interests of Britain.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

1. What were the challenges the British faced in the development of railway transport in Nigeria?

2. Why was the railway transport desirable to the British colonial government?

3. What are the effects of the railway revolution in Nigeria?

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Crowder, M. (1976). West Africa Under Colonial Rule. London: Hutchinson.

Ekundare, R.O. (1973). An Economic History of Nigeria, 1860 – 1960. London: Methuen

& Co Ltd.

Obiakor, N.J., and Agajelu, A.C. (2016). “British Colonial economic Policies

and Infrastructure in Nigeria: The Rail Transport Example, 1898 – 1960”.

IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities, Vol. 2 (3), 12 – 26.

Olukoju, A. (1996). “Transportation in Colonial West Africa” in G. O. Ogunremi and E.

K. Faluyi (eds.), An Economic History of West Africa Since 1750. Ibadan: Rex Charles.

Omosini, O. (1971). “Railway Projects and British attitudes Towards the Development of West Africa, 1872–1903.” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (J.H.S.N), Vol. V, No 4, 491-507

Unit 3: The Development of Road Transport in Nigeria