The Federal Government through the Ministry of Transportation has disclosed its readiness to improve the welfare of the staff of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and to foster better working conditions.
This was made known by the Minister of Transportation, Sa’idu Alkali, during a familiarization visit to the NRC’s Headquarters in Ebute-Meta, Lagos.
Consequently, the transport minister affirmed that he would give priority attention to the implementation of the Presidential approval for the upward review of special allowance for Nigerian railway workers.
In his views, “The visit was to assess and evaluate the performance of the Corporation in relation to managerial coordination and implementation of existing rail infrastructure and ongoing projects with particular reference to Lagos-Ibadan and Kano-Maradi railway modernization”.
Alkali assured the NRC’s Management of the Ministry’s support towards realizing its statutory functions in all ramifications.
“The Federal Ministry of Transportation would take advantage of bilateral and multilateral agreements between Nigeria and several countries on trade and transfer of technology”, he stated.
Additionally, Alkali pointed out that transportation constitutes a major organ in promoting economic growth across countries worldwide. As such, the Ministry according to him, would ensure the completion of the President Bola Tinubu Station Standard Gauge rail in a very short while
He said the Ministry was working towards fixing the single-track carrying containers from Lagos to Kano within three months.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Friday by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Henshaw Ogbuike, the minister, affirmed that ” The familiarization tour of railway facilities and projects within Lagos was interesting, despite a number of discoveries that required urgent Executive action”.
Earlier, the Managing Director, NRC, Fidet Okhiria, congratulated the Minister on behalf of the entire staff on his appointment and that the NRC had faced challenges, which included security threats and vandalism of critical infrastructure.
“We must applaud the efforts of various security agencies for securing the NRC facilities for the safety of our valued passengers and other stakeholders by arresting and prosecuting offenders”, he added.
He pleaded with the Minister to use his legislative experience to achieve his mandate of railway modernization projects in the country.
