Union urges govt to amend Railway Act for private sector investment

Citing British Railways, Senior Staff Association of Communications Transport and Corporations, (SSACTAC) has called on the Federal Government to as matter urgency, amend the Nigeria Railways Corporation Act of 1955 to enable private sector key invest in rail operations.

SSACTAC President-General, Comrade Mohammed A. Yunusa, who made the call in a chat with The Guardian in Abuja, said, “If we look at the British Railways, for example, there was a time they privatized it, eventually the same government of Britain went back and collected it from private investors, to manage it by itself.”

“We can compare our experiences with their own to see what issues are affecting the efficiency of the Nigeria Railway Corporation. Government should continue to render optimum assistance to it. Railways activity is a social service and is public-driven. So, government must find a way to assist it get back to operations.”

To Yunusa, “We also expect government to learn from the experience we had from the privatization of NEPA, which lead to loss of jobs and we hope the they would study how they did and apply same to our railways in the country.”

He criticized the way and manner the immediate past administration sold Federal Housing Authority, FHA, to private companies, adding that after they bought it they were unable to provide affordable houses to Nigerians.

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for sanitising NNPC, which he maintained, it has improved fuel supply to our cities, stressing that he should look at the operations at NNPC, from the crude oil processing to how the refineries are run.