By Chukwuma Umeorah
The Association of Nigerian Railway Senior Citizens (ANRSC) has raised the alarm over the alleged plot by the management of the Nigerian Railway Commision (NRC) to sell its staff quarters to its executive members.
In a statement signed by ANRSC’s National Public Relations Officer/Publicity Secretary, Lagos, Festus Okorie, the Board of Trustees and the National Executive Council of the Association specifically fingered the Nigerian Union of Railway Workers (NUR) and Senior Staff Association (SSA) in the conspiracy accusing them of poor handling of the railway staff quarters monetization policy.
The ANRSC which is the umbrella body of retirees of Nigerian Railway Corporation passed a vote of no confidence on the leadership of the two in-house Unions of the NRC.
They accused the unions of double standard and nursing a hidden agenda with the NRC’s management to sell the staff quarters to themselves by shutting the retirees out in the ongoing discussions arriving at recommendations they made to the Minister of Transport, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo and the committee that was inaugurated in February 2023.
The ANRSC further alleged that both unions and NRC’s management had sought to mislead the minister into taking decisions that were against the interests of the retirees.
“We condemn in its entirety the unions’ conspiracy with the railway management to mislead the honorable minister and the committee chairman who doubles as the chairman of the NRC Board into taking decisions that are, not only inimical to the interests and rights of Retirees in particular and the Corporation’s staff in general, but also prejudicial to the extant policy of the Federal government and the judgement of National Industrial Court which gave us right to offer of first refusal.”
It therefore warned that any member of railway management or staff of NUR or SSA who was making any representation to the minister or the ministerial Committee on monetization of railway quarters to the effect that he/she wants to recover the monetized staff quarters to allocate them to serving staff, is insincere, selfish and dishonest.
It added that such a claim would be a dubious ploy and embarrassment to the government of Federal Republic of Nigeria
Stressing that the unions could not successfully reach a reasonable resolution without seeking the input of the ANRSC, the senior citizens added, “We urge the current Unions’ leadership to shelve their plan to sell our houses to themselves and their principals and use the proceeds to pay us some pittance as settlement.
We have been on this struggle for what belongs to us for over ten years and won our case before some of you joined, serve or became Union executives.”
Meanwhile the association also called on the minister, Sambo to speed up the process of allocation of completed replacement quarters to its staff (both retired and serving) who were displaced at their quarters at Ebute Metta Junction and Ikeja to allow for the construction work on the railway.
Part of the aims of the Monetization policy thrust which started in 2004 was to divest and relieve the federal government from the responsibility of further providing and maintaining staff quarters for its employees and to assist all staff to own their own houses on retirement.
It lamented the slow and inefficient implementation of the policy in the NRC when compared to other government agencies.
However, while declaring their cooperation to the minister appreciated his effort, but drew his attention to the fact that any decision taken without the ANRSC may not reflect the true situation of the subject.
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