Railway pensioners ask Tinubu to break housing monetisation deadlock

Retired railway workers under the Association of Nigerian Railway Senior Citizens (ANRSC) have renewed their push to own the official quarters they occupy, taking the case to President Bola Tinubu at a news conference in Lagos.

ANRSC chairman Olusegun Esan said the federal housing monetisation policy, introduced in 2004/2005, was designed to reduce government spending on maintaining official residences while giving serving and retired public officers the chance to buy the quarters they occupy at affordable rates. He said the policy has been fully implemented in ministries, departments and agencies including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian Port Authority and the judiciary.

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is the exception, according to the association. Esan said past NRC management monetised vehicles and furniture but left out the quarters where retirees live, despite the corporation having been one of Africa's largest employers with more than 50,000 workers whose families are spread across the country.

He said a prolonged legal dispute had subjected many retirees and their families to hardship, with some pensioners dying and others left homeless. The association wants Tinubu to direct the Attorney-General of the Federation and NRC management to implement the monetisation policy and a 2016 court judgment, and is also seeking compensation and resettlement allowances for affected retirees and widows.

Esan said the association had written to NRC management, the Minister of Transportation and the Ministry of Justice, and submitted documents detailing the affected residential quarters across railway districts and properties allegedly occupied by third parties. He said current NRC management had engaged the association on a possible settlement, but members rejected the proposed conditions because they allegedly contradicted the policy and the court judgment.