中文
By Zhang Heling
Issah Abiola, widely recognized as Nigeria's first female train driver, said the Friendship Envoy Award under the China International Communications Group (CICG) Orchid Award she received in 2025 came as a surprise. She sees it as a reflection of the friendship between China and Nigeria — a bond built through daily work that extends far beyond the driver's cab.
Issah Abiola speaks during an interview in Beijing. [Photo by Chen Yuehan/chinadiplomacy.org.cn]
"Receiving this award is a great honor, which I never expected," Abiola said in an interview with chinadiplomacy.org.cn. "I am recognized by the Nigerian government and my fellow Nigerians. I am also recognized internationally as a symbol of the strong bond between China and Nigeria."
The recognition, she added, tells her that hard work is not in vain and encourages young people to work hard and build valuable ties between the two countries.
The Orchid Award, presented by CICG, honors individuals and organizations that promote cultural exchange and mutual understanding. For Abiola, it reflects a career spent moving between roles, cultures and expectations. She started working at 18 as an office assistant and, over 18 years, became a train driver and then a certified trainer.
At the center of that journey are lessons from her Chinese mentor that she now passes on to her students.
"My mentor told me the importance of being a train driver: You drive with your heart, not just with your head. Because when something is wrong with your heart or your mindset, then something will be wrong with the train," Abiola said. That principle shapes her teaching and the pre-shift checks, which cover her state of mind, uniform and physical condition.
"Driving is not only about using your hands," she said. "You use your head, your hands and your heart."
That discipline also shapes how she sees the railway's wider impact. As one of the first drivers on the Abuja Light Rail, Abiola has watched the area along the route change from her cab.
"What I see is a space that was occupied by bush, and now we have a lot of houses. In a place where cows and goats once roamed, now I see estates," she said.
A local resident told her he lives near the station and because of the railway, his children can now get to school easily and return home safely. Market traders and students, she said, now travel with less stress. She linked such changes to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, saying it has strengthened collaboration and helped develop Nigeria's economy.
Abiola's daily work reflects the cultural bridge-building the Orchid Award recognizes. In the driver's cab and at training centers such as the Luban Workshop, she helps Chinese and Nigerian colleagues understand one another.
"We have different skin colors. We eat different food. We speak different languages. But we have one goal, which is we have one positive mind to work together and get something done," she said. She tells passengers and colleagues that different skin colors do not mean different hearts.
Participants at the Luban Workshop include both Chinese and Africans, she noted, but they share the same goal: to collaborate, work and build a good relationship.
"Just try to have one heart, a single heart," she said, "to carry along the technology, carry along young people, and also carry along a good friendship together to make us one."
Asked to describe China-Africa relations, Abiola chose two trees: the populus and the baobab. "The populus is a very tall tree with good shade that can protect," she said, while the baobab "nourishes the populus to make it stronger."
Together, she explained, the populus shields against heavy winds while the baobab nourishes it, and children who sit in its shade in the future will remember who planted it. "This seems like the good relationship between Africa, Nigeria and China," she said, describing two trees that come together to give strong roots, good shade and protection from winds that might blow away positive energy.
For Abiola, the Orchid Award recognizes that same idea: Different cultures can share one heart and one goal. Her story shows how that work happens in ordinary places, such as a driver's cab, a training workshop or a station platform, where a lesson about driving with heart becomes a lesson about working across differences. The railway, she said, does more than transport people; it can carry friendship and development to future generations.
