By Demilade Adeniyi
Nigerian Railway workers under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Railway workers strongly condemn the vapid and uninspiring attitude of the federal government to end the lingering face-off between it and the Unions of Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, and Research Institutions especially on the government’s no work-no pay policy on the striking workers of the universities and other tertiary institutions.
We therefore appealed to the Federal Government to meet the legitimate charter of demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) without further delay and save the nation’s education sector from total collapse.
In a joint statement signed by the NUR’s President General Comrade Innocent Luka Ajiji, and Secretary General Segun Esan, the union said Federal Government should be responsible enough to end the ongoing ASUU strike and rescue millions of Nigerian schooling youths, who are majorly the children of the working class and poor masses from ruins and tempestuous engagements.
They equally condemned the continued neglect of the agreement between the Nigerian Railway Corporation and the Railway Workers union, regarding the conditions of service of their members.
“Most importantly, the Federal Government should adopt the preferred salary payment platform in place of IPPIS as proposed by the striking university lecturers and also do all that is necessary for the infrastructural development of the nation’s ivory towers. The Federal Government should adopt global best practice by shelving its grandstanding and allowing the ivory towers to research and think for it on how the education sector and the country in general can be developed. It is neither modern nor acceptable anywhere in the world that government thinks for its ivory towers other than implement policies that will bring prosperity and improved livability to the citizenry.
In the same vein the condemnable insensitivity of the management and the Board of Nigerian Railway Corporation to the welfare and wellbeing of the teeming railway workers may compel the industry to witness a total and indefinite strike action any moment from now.
It is unfortunate and most disheartening that, almost eight months after the Nigerian Railway workers’ three-day nationwide warning strike of November 2021 was suspended and clear agreement reached between the Union and the management with January 2022 deadline for the management to provide answers to the charter of demands of the workers, no significant achievement has been made by the management so far to assuage the aggrieved workers till now.
For instance, the standard condition of service which was reviewed last in 1978 and on which the workers demanded a review for immediate application has been kept in the cooler unattended after a review committee was inaugurated to work on it. The review committee worked inconclusively and till now, there is no known standard condition of service in the rail transport industry. Similar to this, the approval of ninety five percent for salary enhancement has remained a nominal approval without any hope in sight as to when it will translate to cash for the workers. For the purpose of recollection, other workers welfare demands that led to the warning strike include non-payment of allowances; slavish use of the workers beyond the prescribed eight hours a day and 40 hours a week (weekends excluded) by the Public Service Rule PSR; non-payment of workers’ salaries by IPPIS till the salaries are lost and unpaid; administrative delay in promotion procedures which culminate in accumulation of promotion arrears and subsequent loss of same; serial ejection of workers from their staff quarters with unfulfilled promise to replace and allocate quarters to the affected staff accordingly; transferring workers from one location to another without adequate provision for their comfort and convenience; among many others.