Those who still have a capacity to grieve in this country must remember Langalanga. It was a sight of a horrific carnage in the seventies. In 1970, a passenger train carrying large number of people derailed, crashed and fell into a canyon at Langa Langa, Benue, Nigeriain, killing 80 - 300 people according to various reports. Langa Langa has a difficult terrain so when the coaches rammed into one another, rescue was really hard. To compound matters, the trailer carrying the wounded to the hospital also crashed killing the remaining survivors. It was a trope of monumental and frightful absurdity, a metaphor for looming state failure.

The train conveying many students (most of them schooling in Keffi) was heading for Enugu. It is believed that the train left Zaria. Some of the passengers stopped in Gudi. Next to Gudi is Langa Langa; then it happened!

The cause of the accident range from Drunkenness of the train driver, excessive speeding, and e.t.c - No one really knows what caused the accident.

Since this tragedy, Nigerian appetite for travelling by rail reduced significantly and subsequent governments basically abandoned our rail system until OBJ started the revival process, which GEJ is taking to its completion.

I urge folks not to politicize issues arround our rail transportation system and to remember the hundreds of people who paid with their lives in the Langa Langa tragedy.

Lets support GEJ in his effort to complete the revival process, but watch his agents like a hawk to reduce looting which has become the order of the day.

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This is so educative, rite away I am contactin google, wanna read more, "Langa langa" is dia any monument in honour of dos hu lost dia lives? No. Have we learnt lessons? No.

Sumtyms even wen u walk too fast u must crash talkless of train. Little wonder sum persons are lookin for a train as fast as the ill fated concord plane on des our rails.

Henry praise: This is so educative, rite away I am contactin google, wanna read more, "Langa langa" is dia any monument in honour of dos hu lost dia lives? No. Have we learnt lessons? No.

Sumtyms even wen u walk too fast u must crash talkless of train. Little wonder sum persons are lookin for a train as fast as the ill fated concord plane on des our rails.

My brother, the sad thing is that the youths of this country are quite ignorant of our history and that ignorance is expoilted by politicians and used as a weapon to loot the treasuries dry.

The Langa Langa train disaster probably remains the worst train disaster in history, given the number of the dead involved. May their souls continue to RIP.

Those who do not know history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

Langa Langa is in Plateau (or Nasarawa) on the stretch between Kafanchan and Mada. That stretch is very rocky with endlessly rolling mountains and very lovely view. That stretch upto Lafia was the slowest stretch between Kano and PH in those days and trains actually slowed to a crawl on the approach to LANGA Langa, meandering through rocks and turning half circles.

I used to see the wreckage anytime we passed the area, when we rocked the trains from school holidays on reserved coaches with our travel allowance from FG, flanked by FGGC BAKORI, Gusau, Kazaure partying and rocking for 24 hours. The trains were always on time, 1Pm for Lagos Line and 4Pm for eastern line from KDJ. By 1989, we were spending 48 hours travel time and by 1992, NRC was as good as gone.

Abacha not Obj started the revival process, Obj scrapped Abacha's programme and on the eve of his departure from office proposed a watered down version of the programme Abacha had started 9 years earlier. So Obj's contribution was to delay the revival programme by 9years.

It is nonsense to say that our rail system was ambandoned because there was no demand for a railway by Nigerians.

Are you seriously saying that GEJ is approaching completion of railway revival programme? Are your serious?

ndu_chucks:

Since this tragedy, Nigerian appetite for travelling by rail reduced significantly and subsequent governments basically abandoned our rail system until OBJ started the revival process, which GEJ is taking to its completion.

I urge folks not to politicize issues arround our rail transportation system and to remember the hundreds of people who paid with their lives in the Langa Langa tragedy.

Lets support GEJ in his effort to complete the revival process, but watch his agents like a hawk to reduce looting which has become the order of the day.

References:

One
Two

GenBuhari: Abacha not Obj started the revival process, Obj scrapped Abacha's programme and on the eve of his departure from office proposed a watered down version of the programme Abacha had started 9 years earlier. So Obj's contribution was to delay the revival programme by 9years.

It is nonsense to say that our rail system was ambandoned because there was no demand for a railway by Nigerians.

Are you seriously saying that GEJ is approaching completion of railway revival programme? Are your serious?

My theory is that demand dropped dramatically after the Langa Langa disaster, what's your theory of what killed the railway system in Nigeria? i I stand corrected regarding the head of State who started the revival process. I did not say that GEJ is approaching completion of the railway revival program, what I said was that we should support GEJ in his effort to complete the revival process.

I tink dis shud not be politicised but d lessons from langalanga shud be learnt n effected, we shud support any president that is on course to upgrade nigeria. The last survivor one Adamu died last year.

Ehmmm,sorry but NRC has being recording loss since the colonial period,infact it was the only loss making line in the British empire,that's what killed it,
To be honest I think the line should be privatised.

The first time i went through langa langa on rail i was so afraid. As soon as we were approaching the area every one in the 21 or 22 coaches kept quite and there was complect silence that the only thing you will be hearing was the engine running and the noise from the rail track. Every one was complectly quiet. The place is so unique and also scary too. The rail track has a very unique curve. When the train gets to the middle of langa langa proper, if you take a look outside and look back you will see the the train almost making letter O or C, the head nd last coach almost touching each other. It was always a good site to behold but with fear and complect silence. Try that and experience what am talking about. There is much fun when you travel by train. Then it use to take me about three (3) days to travel from Aba to Zaria, this was around 1986. Good old days. It was real fun then. When you travel that distance by train you will appreciate nigeria the more. The train always stop at each station there you meet different people from vary ethnic settings and culture. You see people with their way of life and its so strange to you and the most important one was the different type of food you see every day. My friends Nigerian has got food.

I suppose youths prefer tribal bashing threads to one like this.

1970

Was the civil war still raging then?

FP.