Railway retirees seek Tinubu’s intervention to end 21-year housing delay

Urge FG to compensate evicted pensioners, reverse sale of quarters

Association of Nigeria Railway Senior Citizens (ANRSC) has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the prolonged dispute over the implementation of the Federal Government’s monetisation policy on Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) staff quarters.

They alleged that successive managements had denied retired workers their entitlement to the houses they occupied during their years of service.

The association said the failure to implement the policy, introduced in 2004/2005 to transfer ownership of government residential quarters to their legitimate occupants, had left many retired railway workers and their families facing uncertainty, with some allegedly evicted from their homes without alternative accommodation.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos over the weekend, the National Chairman of ANRSC, Segun Esan, said the association was seeking presidential intervention to resolve what he described as a 21-year struggle over the ownership of railway residential quarters.

Esan argued that the monetisation policy was designed to reduce the Federal Government’s financial burden of maintaining government-owned residential properties while providing serving and retired public servants with opportunities to own the homes they occupied.

He said the policy, backed by a Federal Government White Paper and a Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) circular, directed that government quarters be converted to owner-occupier arrangements and sold to their legitimate occupants at discounted and affordable prices.

According to him, the policy had been implemented in several government institutions, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Ports Authority, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the judiciary.

He questioned why railway retirees had been excluded from the programme despite having occupied the quarters during their years of service.

The association also accused successive NRC managements of selectively implementing the monetisation policy, alleging that while official vehicles and furniture were monetised, the residential component was left unresolved.

The association called on the Attorney-General of the Federation and the NRC management to discontinue the appeal, arguing that the prolonged litigation had worsened the hardship faced by elderly former railway workers.

However, Esan argued that railway retirees should not have to wait for new homes to be built because the residential quarters they currently occupy were already covered by the monetisation policy.

The dispute raises broader questions about the management of public assets, the implementation of government welfare policies and the protection of workers’ retirement benefits, particularly in government institutions undergoing restructuring and commercialisation.

Efforts to speak with the Chief Public Relations Officer, NRC, Callistus Unyimadu, proved abortive as several calls made to him were not answered as at the time of filing this report.