Railway workers vow to resist take over of Nigerian Railways by concessionaire

A controversy seems to have visited the Federal Government planned involvement of the private sector in running the Nigerian Railway services, as workers have vowed to resist any attempt to hand over the establishment to General Electric (GE), the preferred concessionaire.

The workers alleged that the terms of the concession, reached between GE and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) was done without taking into consideration the existing Act establishing the NRC, which will need the National Assembly amending the Act or abrogating it before any private body could take its ownership.

Throwing more light on the development, the National Union of Railway Workers (NURW) Secretary General, Segun Esan, pointed out a number of breaches of the agreement reached between the management and workers on the privatisation of the railway.

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He ssid, “Nigerian workers have not been fortunate enough to get privatisation, or concession really right in this country, probably because of our policy inconsistency, corruption and lack of political will.

“This is again playing itself out with the hasty way railway concession is being pursued, and we feel that caution should be taken.

“We wonder why all the inventories on the entire assets of Nigerian Railway should be handed over to a preferred concessionaire whose document of expression of interest predates the newspaper advert for the bidding.

“Their (the concessionaire) application was dated September 2016, predating the advert for expression of interest for the bidding, which was January, 2017.”

Esan further stated that the workers were still frowning at the position of the Ministry of Transportation that 20 of the present workforce will be absorbed by the GE, while the remaining 80 per cent will be sent to a University of Railway Technology that will be established by the concessionaire.

“But we are hearing from the company that they will absorb a zero per cent of the present workforce, even when we have not accepted the proposal from the ministry.

“Their interest is how to take possession of all the NRC properties and other access, without the liabilities, but we cannot allow that to be,” the workers’ scribe stated.

However, the NRC Managing Director, Fred Edetanlaen Okhiria, speaking through, Daniel Ebong his aide, said negotiations were still on regarding what the investor’s role in the new rail system in Nigeria will be.

“Workers should be patient since the tripartite agreement, involving the Chinese Bank, providing its counterpart funding, the Federal Government and the management, which will carry the workers’ interests is still being fine tuned

“There is no truth that zero per cent of staff will be taken by the concessionaire,” he stated.

All attempts to get reactions from GE management on Tuesday proved abortive, but sources say the concession process had been pulled through.

 

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