 Passengers have been stranded at train stations since the federal government announced free services for them nationwide. That was from December 24th to end on the January 4th, 2022. Now, some passengers at a train station in Lagos were seen lamenting, but the system was frustrating. Jacinta Obuku has more. At the Babatunde fashion at train station at Gigi, we were greeted by angry passengers who were hustling for their tickets. The train services were scheduled for 6am, 12pm and 4pm for the day. They complained about the process and boarding delay in the system. They disclosed that some passengers who were supposed to board 6am train were yet to get their tickets at 10am when our crew arrived the station. The challenge we are having is that the officers are not managing the allocation of tickets, surely. The way they are doing it is somehow, they will give you tally. I got here around 7am in the morning. I'm supposed to go with the first train, and I'm still here. This is like 12 o'clock. From those that enjoyed this thing first when it started, they said a lot of good things about it. But now it seems like there's no free lunch anymore. So it's looking like people have to tip some people to get in and all that. Some people are holding the tickets and all that. I've been here since early in the morning. So if what we want them to do is just to do the certain calculation, but then we got here, let us know if we can. Because if we are here since 7 o'clock and we could not even be able to follow 4 o'clock again, we are going back home. So far, it's a bit stressful because in Nigeria anything that is free cannot be easy, but then I think since it's free, we should be able to endure the process. One of the passengers even stressed that the government shouldn't have approved the free ticket but should have reduced the fare instead. When you are running a business and you give it totally free, you are wasting the resources. You can subsidize, not to let it be free. I don't see a nation that will be giving all these, these kind of facilities are free, totally free for more than a day. You are just starting a real system again and the real system you just started, you are running anyhow. You are running free. It's all good. Some of the passengers alleged that some people are paying their way through the back door. However, passengers were warned not to cut corners but to exercise patience. This has been going on for days and citizens are waiting for the next line of action from the authorities. Joining us live is a public affairs analyst Majid Dahiru as we take a look at this very issue, this very report that we just had. Good evening Mr. Majid Dahiru. Good evening. Well, let me start by asking you what your take is on the opinion expressed by one of those reporter interviewed who said that they shouldn't have been made completely free but rather should have been subsidized. What's your take on that? I think it was a good question from the government to afford Nigerian free train ride during the new time. The trains have a figure originally actually subsidized by the government. So this was just, I believe, because government efforts to ameliorate the hard times on Nigerian and I think it's commendable and in good faith and despite the hitches associated with the exercise, I think the government deserves commendation for this. This leads you to the augmented idea of this pair of the train. So while this free lunch in court is commendable, how should it have been conducted? Because these hitches seem to have taken the shine out of this gesture. Yes, you're right. I think this report is a very good one and it should serve as a feedback mechanism for the government to make this free lunch work worthwhile. I think the problem is an over stretch of the available rail facilities. This is Lagos Ibadon, for example. The volume of passenger traffic is probably highest across the country and so the online parking system would have been completely oversubscribed by prospective passengers and some unscrupulous elements within the system would have taken advantage of these situations to make some quick money off the Nigerians. So I think the government should look into this through this report and make sure that people within the system do not undermine the effort of government at making life better for its citizens. Do you think we should have it privatized? No, I do not think it should privatize. I'm not a believer in privatization at all. For me, this is a social amenity and any responsible government in the world is supposed to be able to run a subsidized train service for its children. That is the irreplaceable minimum expected of a responsible country. So I do not think it should be privatized. The government should be able to run it very well. Yeah, government should be able to run it and run it very well. But from what we are seeing and from what you've just analyzed, there are still some glitches that should be taken. Corruption, how do you advise them to fix this? So it doesn't damage the whole effort being put by government. Well, I didn't get the question. Well, how do you advise government to handle the issue of corruption? We've just seen a bit of it just from a few days of free rides given to Nigerians. And as you have analyzed, it is a problem that should be sorted out. How do you advise the government to handle this problem of corruption, nip it in the bud, because this has just been revived. So it doesn't mess up the whole system being put together. The corruption you see in the real system is not an isolated one. Simply, it's a function of the dysfunctional state of our public sector. And the solution is not to privatize because experts have shown that when you privatize a malfunctioning public asset or enterprise, you get very low premium from prospective investors who are only outside the assets of this corporation. And so for me, I have always recommended that rather than hurriedly privatize and then change the inefficience from public to private sector, as seen in the discourse, electric power discourse. Telecommunications? Telecommunications was not privatized. It was liberalized. That is, it allowed other players in the sector. As you speak, Niger is immoribund because Niger was not run well. Niger has not been successfully privatized. So imagine, for example, if we had stopped with Niger as a privatized entity, it would have been like the discos and gem codes. So I'm saying government has the responsibility to keep the road in the public sector. If you do not think the public sector, the private sector cannot function properly because the private sector is the product of the public sector. So I think the coalition should be around fixing the public sector, making it efficient, repositioning and keep the running of public sector very seriously. It should be run in line with international best practices. That should be the ideal minimum of any functional government. So it's not an issue that the public sector is corrupt. It shouldn't be corrupt. It should be corrupt free. And the government has the responsibility to ensure that through the relevant policies, another legitimate instrument. All right. Well, Mr. Majid Dahiro, thank you so much for your time. We look forward to the day when there will be zero corruption in Nigeria. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time.