December 19, (THEWILL) – The present Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari has over the last few years shown that its is committed to the development and modernisation of Nigeria’s railway system. Ongoing efforts to revitalise the railway system and establish it as the choice mode of transportation, as claimed by the President himself, has seen the government expend huge sums of money, especially on the construction of new railway lines, which will be spread across the country in due course.
As expected, the completion and inauguration of the 157-Kiliometre Lagos-Ibadan and the Kaduna-Abuja railway projects, as well as the Warri-Itakpe railway line have begun to ease public transportation and to boost the movement of goods across the country.
It is noteworthy that the Abuja-Kaduna railway line serves as the only reliable and safe means of transportation on land from the Federal Capital Territory to Kaduna, in the absence of effective security for commuters. Apart from the relief, which this has brought many Nigerian travellers on this route, the commencement of commercial operations from Lagos to Ibadan, Abuja to Kaduna and Warri to Itakpe has been trailed by excitement and tales of success. Encouraged by the response from the public, the Federal Government has promised to construct more railway lines: Kaduna-Kano, Ibadan-Kano and Lagos- Calabar, among others
It came as a rude shock then when in November 2021, the two labour unions in the railway sector, the Nigerian Union of Railway Workers (NURW) and the Senior Staff Association (SSA), NRC Branch, began a nationwide strike and shut down the operations of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), crippling passenger train services along the Lagos-Ibadan, Kaduna-Abuja and Warri-Itakpe routes and leaving many passengers stranded. This is even as the strike also affected the evacuation of cargo by rail from the Lagos ports. Many of them were left stranded inside the ports.
The President-General, Nigerian Union of Railway Workers (NURW), Innocent Ajiji, made an astonishing revelation when he said that railway workers are the most poorly paid among all the parastatals in the Ministry of Transportation. He added that after deductions, such as the contributory housing scheme, pension, union dues and tax, are made the minimum wage salary of the average worker drops to a paltry N26,000.
The Secretary-General of the NURW, Comrade Segun Esan, also lamented that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, had not taken the welfare of railway workers seriously, adding that the minister only met them twice and each time, left the meeting without reaching any reasonable conclusion.
Esan also complained of huge disparities in the salaries earned by railway workers, in comparison to their counterparts in the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
The leader of the railway union claimed to have also met with the transportation minister on the issue of welfare for railway workers, but he failed to take the plight of railway workers seriously.
In specific terms, the railway workers listed some of their grievances to include: Unpaid rents to the occupants of the demolished quarters at the Alagomeji area of Lagos. According to reports, funds for only one year rent was given to them in 2018 when their quarters were demolished to pave the way for the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge railway line.
The others are non-payment of promotion arrears for 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, which was caused through delay, year in year out, in administrative preparation for the promotion exercise; skipped and unpaid monthly salaries of some workers, especially those who entered service in 2019; transfer of workers without adequate provision of accommodation and relocation allowances; refusal to complete the review of the standard condition of service started a few years ago and which was last reviewed for implementation in 1978; delayed allocation of the replaced quarters to all the occupants of the demolished quarters at Ebute Metta and environs, thus causing the affected workers serious mental, social, and financial agony in the past three years, among others
While we are not taking sides on the matter, we want to call on the Federal Government to urgently take into consideration, as part of its efforts to revamp and modernise the railway system, the overall welfare of railway workers.
The government should not invest in railway infrastructure on one hand and on the other hand, negate the essence of the investment by neglecting the workers’ welfare. It should not only make adequate salaries and allowances of railway workers a priority, but also ensure that they are paid as at when due.
The protection and good use of the new facilities that are being installed across the country’s railway stations, as well as other expenses, mostly through overseas loans, can only be guaranteed when the workers are satisfied and happy.
We urge the Federal Government to meet with the leadership of the railway workers’ unions and ensure that there is a harmonious relationship between it and the workers. This would go a long way to boost the government’s agenda for the railway system and indeed, the transport sector.
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