The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has been advised to engage security agencies to curb the constant vandalism of railway assets.

Transport expert, Segun Esan, in an interview with The Guardian, urged the NRC to actively engage the Nigerian Police, Man O’ War and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in ensuring the safety of railway facilities across the country.

Esan also charged the Corporation to engage with host communities across the railway corridors to ensure the safety of these facilities, while reactivating length men and community members to protect the facilities.

Esan insisted that the root cause of vandalism of rail tracks by some unscrupulous elements in society must be addressed by all.

Esan, who was also a former Secretary-General of the Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR), stated that the Federal Government must be prepared to apply a multifaceted solution to the national embarrassment.

He canvassed capital punishment through the legal process against anyone caught vandalising railway assets.

According to him, to maintain and sustain train activities on the tracks, the government should stop paying lip service to railway privatisation, unbundle the Nigerian railway by stopping NRC’s monopoly and encourage private investors to participate in the sector.

A professor of transport and logistics at the Lagos State University, Samuel Odewumi, regretted that stealing was pervasive among both the poor and the rich, stressing that some people still attempted to justify their actions by attributing them to poverty.

Odewumi proposed massive value reorientation for Nigerians as one of the solutions that the government must adopt to curb the menace.

He regretted that the crime had become an endemic societal problem, which would require a long and sustained ethical campaign, noting that the challenge could not be resolved immediately.

Odewumi said in the short term, the solution was to enlist the local communities along the rail line in monitoring and reporting.

He suggested approval of monthly stipends for the host communities, adding that a dedicated phone line should be provided so they could call whenever they detected theft of the facilities.

The transport expert declared that the theft was not just mindless, but a big racket for selling to big companies for smelting.