Union adverse to planned NRC concessions
The Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR) has kicked against the proposed concession of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) as it would lead to job losses.
The union harboured reservations that public assets could be sold off without appropriate technical valuation and labour disengagement.
Its Secretary-General, Mr. Segun Esan, who disclosed this to journalists in Lagos, noted that concessions had reinforced underdevelopment, and encouraged massive unemployment with corruption.
He said the system threatened the country’s security and existence. According to him, the system and the policy of concessions had been consistently observed, and that assets of privatized enterprises had been deliberately undervalued.
He described the policy as an abuse of due process, characterized by corruption, which has affected the outcome of the exercise, adding that the Bureau of Public Entreprise has failed to exercise its oversight functions in the privatization process.
The House of Representatives had, at its plenary, moved to investigate the planned concession of the Nigerian Railways Corporation to General Electric, to avoid violating Nigeria’s privatization law.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government constituted a 20-member committee on the concessions of the Eastern and Western Lines of the Railways.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo inaugurated the committee headed by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, at the Presidential Villa in August.
