Railway workers laud Osinbajo over privatisation

The workers of Nigerian Railway, under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR), have commended the federal government on the reconstitution of the National Council on Privatisation.

But the workers have distanced themselves from the concession of some critical track of the railway to a preferred American consortium, General Electric, citing non-adherence to due process among other issues, an a reason for their opposition to it.

In a statement signed by the Secretary General of NUR, Comrade Segun Esan, the workers expressed their approval of the reconstitution of the National Council on Privatisation by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and inferred that the inauguration of the Council would serve as checks to the ‘ambitious, shady and dizzying speed’ at which the federal ministry of Transportation was going about the concession of Nigerian Railway’s 3’505km narrow gauge track system to its preferred American consortium, General Electric (GE).

“The federal government has just taken a bold and right step in the right direction by reconstituting the National Council on Privatization which certainly will serve as checks to the ambitious, shady and dizzying speed at which the federal Ministry of Transportation is rushing to unilaterally concession the Nigerian Railway’s 3’505km narrow gauge system to its preferred concessionaire, General Electric (GE) for a period of 30 years without regard to transparency, railway worker participation and without any known plan to engage the workers on how to solve all evolving labour-related issues without which the planned concession will be another monumental failure as usual”, the statement read.

According to the President of the NUR, Comrade Saidu Garba, he expressed skepticism on the success of the planned concession of the Nigerian Railway narrow gauge track referring to the post-privatization failure of many enterprises formerly owned by the federal government.

‘’Upon realizing that the federal government has the right to do whatever it likes with its enterprises, we have so decided not to dissipate our energy unnecessarily on stopping the government from selling its assets than to give our candid advice as social partners and stakeholders in the sub-sector. The federal government is at liberty to take our informed advice that renationalization of the railway is preferable to concession or privatization. Where the government wants concession, then we should be more concerned about how such sale either through privatization or concession, as it is the case with Nigerian Railway, is done lawfully and known to due diligence, utmost transparency and global best practice. It should be done in a way that it truly will address the subsisting infrastructure deficit in the rail transport sub-sector if we are really sincere about securing our growth as a nation and as an economy.

“We hope that the reconstituted council on privatisation, with the Acting President as the chairman, will fulfill the role of an institutional framework and also address all the breaches of due diligence and the apparently ambitious manner with which the process of railway concession is being driven by the federal ministry of transportation while Nigerian Railway that statutorily should be the procurer of its concessionaire as Nigeria’s only institution with railway expertise is shrouded up in the overbearing shadow of the ministry who is supposed to be kept informed by the user-corporation through memos’’, Garba said.

Recalled that the railway workers, in a media conference early this year, had vehemently protested against the planned concession without taking it through due diligence and getting all the workers paid their deserving severance benefits before concession commences. The workers had further protested against the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, in a town hall meeting.

The minister was challenged to respect the rights of the railway workers before any concession is contemplated.