Railway retirees say 50,000 ex-workers homeless over stalled quarters sale

More than 50,000 former workers of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) are homeless or facing eviction from their official quarters, the Association of Nigeria Railway Senior Citizens (ANRSC) has said.

The group blames the NRC management for not implementing the Federal Government's 2004/2005 monetisation policy, which was meant to sell government quarters to the workers living in them.

ANRSC national chairman Segun Esan spoke to transportation journalists at the weekend. Both Tribune and ThisDay reported his remarks.

What the policy was meant to do

Esan said the policy had two aims: to free the government from the cost of maintaining quarters, vehicles and domestic staff, and to give federal workers homes.

Under the policy, occupants — serving or retired — were to buy the quarters they lived in at discounted, affordable prices, he said.

He said the policy has been carried out in other agencies, including the NNPC, CBN, NPA, FAAN, the Ministry of Aviation and the judiciary, where judges and staff now own their former quarters.

"Why are railway workers singled out for punishment by its own management?" Esan asked.

He alleged that past NRC managements shared official vehicles and paid themselves furniture allowances under the same policy, but refused to sell the quarters where poorer retirees live.

He also alleged that successive managements since 2004 sold some quarters secretly to third parties and leased others at high rates while legal occupants were evicted. The NRC has not responded to these allegations in the reports.

The court case

Esan said Justice Babatunde Adejumo, then president of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), ruled in the workers' favour in Suit No. NICN/LA/22/2011 on 6 January 2016, affirming their right to own the quarters.

He said the NRC went to the Court of Appeal that same year and the case has stayed there since — ten years now.

The association is asking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to direct that the policy be implemented. Esan argued that the houses already exist and that government has no business holding quarters in a privatised railway industry.

For the retirees, the stakes are simple: a home after retirement, or eviction. The association says the former railway workforce of over 50,000, spread across the country's districts, built millions of families who are voters in every state.

What happens next: The matter now rests on two things — whether the Court of Appeal rules on the case, and whether the President acts on the association's appeal. Neither the NRC nor the Presidency had responded publicly at the time of this report.