 Welcome, you're still watching the Breakfast and Plus TV Africa and we will be talking about rail transportation. Indeed, the NRC workers went on strike on Friday over a poor welfare package and of course as at Friday, the strike was called off. But joining us this morning to look at all of the issues and why and what they have discussed with the federal government is the President General of the NRC, Mr. Innocent, a Gigi. Many thanks for joining us on the Breakfast and Plus TV Africa. All right, let's talk about the meeting that was held between the Ministry of Transportation and of course the management of the NRC before this track was eventually suspended. Have all the issues that the NRC, you know, the mandate, have they all been met? Thank you very much. Good morning viewers. I would first of all appreciate Plus TV for the role they played during the industrial action that lasted two days. We sincerely appreciate you and the coverage you have given us. I will start by telling you that actually we held a series of meetings within the period that we have been on strike and the first meeting took place in Abuja between the Union and the board members of Railway. The board chairman and the board members were all with us in Abuja. So after an exhaustive deliberation, we moved to Lagos where the Palm State Ministry of Transport and the MD Railway and other colleagues of theirs were waiting for us for a meeting. So we got back to Lagos on Friday and we held a meeting for over four hours, which of course at the end of it all, we came to an agreement with them. It will interest you to know that the issues at stake were not issues that we'll be taking care of now, now, now, today, today, today. So community has been signed and we have given government time to look into the issues and see how it can be resolved. So we are hopeful that sooner or later our problems will be solved. Why do you say the issues are much and they cannot be resolved in the immediate? Can you run us through some of these issues and what indeed the federal government has asked you to do? How long have they said, you know, the federal government has said that it will take to fix some of these issues. Let us know exactly what the issues really are. Okay. First on the issue was an issue of an enhanced salary structure, which of course we've been agitating for over six years. And last year, in fairness to the Ministry of Transport and the management of Railway, it was included in the budget proposal for 2021. When it got to National Assembly, it was removed. So we started all over again this year. And series of meetings has taken place, even with Salaries and Wages Commission, which of course they came to our organization, did a lot of assessment and they were actually convinced that yes, railway workers need enhanced salary structure because the railway worker collects 26,000 Naira as his take home. And so when they saw all this and seen to the fact that our trains are getting revived and people are patronizing our industry, they now felt that there was need for the review. So documents, we submitted a lot of documents and even held series of meetings too with the Minister of Transport, which he promised he was going to assist. And he took documents also from us and we were not satisfied with the follow-up and up to the time we met with him last week Saturday, not the Saturday that our struggle was to last, but the other Saturday. We were not satisfied because he was yet to take the matter to a level that we were expecting that is involving because we pleaded that if he could take our matter to the President of Nigeria, the President could be of assistance because if he grants express approval, then every other organization like Salaries and Wages Commission, National Assembly and all other processes that needed the follow-up will be taking place within the shortest possible time. So we were disappointed that our matter was not taken anywhere despite the submission of the document six months ago. So that was why we embarked on that strike. So issue of salary enforcement is an issue that has a lot of process that needs to be followed. So it's not a process that can be done within a day or two. So in that regard, they demanded that we should give them a little time. Then also we have on the agenda issue of a review of a standard condition of service because the last time a standard condition of service was reviewed was 1978 and it was implemented in 1983 and which of course by law it's supposed to be reviewed on a five-five-year basis. So automatically that brings us to a level that railway is working without condition of service and so a committee was immediately set up that very day which the union were part of the committee to go into negotiations with the management of railway and see how the standard of condition of service will be reviewed immediately and if that is done by the committee it will require the approval of the managing director then it will move to the board chairman of railway for approver and after he approves it will have to move to the ministry of transport and you can imagine how cumbersome the process is so that is why it cannot be done within a day. So we have to give them little time and which of course we agreed that these processes should be done we should be taken to another level between now and 31st of January so that's why we suspended this strike. Okay so you are saying that the communicator was signed the agreement that was reached between the union and the government is that by January all of this would have been reviewed salary structure would have been reviewed upwards and of course implemented and also have you know standard of living improve or working condition improve for the workers is that what you're saying? Yes that is what we hope. Okay so but this is not the very first time you know the Nigerian government is reaching agreement with different unions I mean ASU and what have you the list is almost endless including the doctors communicates have always been signed do you have faith do you think that the Nigerian government would leave up to his expectation and by January you would not be embarking on another strike? Well it is very very unfortunate that a government of Nigeria to some extent don't meet up their own part of the commitment because actually just like you said it is very obvious that ASU are even women for industrial action because I'm aware they have given three weeks notice to government so it's just because government fell in her own path but this is the first time the Nigerian union of railway workers is going into agreement with government and all into the fact that government is sinking huge amount of money in our industry we believe they wouldn't want to let it go like that they wouldn't want it to be a wasted investment so in that regard we are very very optimistic that something will be done between now and that all right aside from the condition of pay that you've talked about are there any issue as regards you know old allowances in fact it will interest you to know that railway worker is a very very patient worker in the whole of Nigeria because I think the last time we went on strike was over 20 years and it's not as if the union has not been pressing home its demands before government before management and before even the national assembly but to some extent when issues that involve railway workers is concerned most of these authorities take it with laxity and that was where we insisted that we must go on this action so apart from these two other issues we have internal issues we have issues between we have issues like a payment of kilometer allowances we have payment of mileage we have a payment of a lot of allowances like that that are not being paid in our organization but it's just because the standard condition of service is very poor these allowances we are talking about where you begin to calculate it will not be more than 220 nera a per day or per week or so on because of the level of the poorness of the standard condition of service so these are some of the allowances and then we among the issues we rose we had issue of this insurance for workers we are we are into group life assurance and which of course to the best of our knowledge since that group life assurance was introduced in runway nobody has ever benefited no next of kin has ever benefited because it this is money that is being paid to next of kin in the event of the death of their loved ones so we have not been benefited benefiting from it at all so but during the meeting the palm segment minister of transport insisted that runway management should immediately compile list of those that are affected and even the necessary documents that are needed be sent to abuja for onward onward processing to the insurance company so we are hopeful that when they look into it also all these monies will be paid so we have a lot of allowances like that that are not being paid to us why because they claim we are not generating but that was in the past but now we are generating huge amount of money on monthly daily basis when we bought in here when you say the nrc is generating huge amount on the daily basis there has been a lot of infrastructure development ongoing in that particular sector if you went to walk us through how much does the nrc generate on a monthly basis is it enough to cater and to all the entire staff some salary to be candid it will not be enough to cater for the entire staff on salary basis but it will be enough to pay allowances so government is paying salaries but allowances are to be paid some of the allowances are supposed to be paid from the internally generated revenue and all this revenue is generated goes to single treasury account so if um government want to assist us in paying this revenue then they need to to set aside particular amount of money that will come to runway for payment of all these allowances quite okay you know runway is not a revenue generation is not a revenue generating organization but a services rendered organization to the nation so we render services and it is quite not expected that with the level of the trends we have on ground that we should be able to generate revenue that can cater for salaries because if government wants revenue to generate revenue that can pay itself then they need to bring more locomotives they need to bring more coaches they need to bring more wagons they need to bring tankers and they need to impose a law because if you go outside Nigeria you will never see a vehicle a truck carrying goods for a distance like from Lagos to Kani but in Nigeria that is the case so when sanctions are put in place that no truck should carry load for more than 50 or 100 kilometers people will have no option than to travel to that than to transport their goods by rail and that will serve as a source of revenue for the organization so but in Nigeria you see that is what our roads done last month you see a truck carrying heavy goods from here to Lagos from Lagos to Kano from Lagos to to Potakot to all the parts of the nation it's not like that in other countries so if we have efficient runway runway can generate and pay itself because I also remember you know the managing director of the corporation expressing some concerns as well saying you know the the corporation cannot generate enough revenue to sustain itself because they have workers across not just Lagos Ibarra but across the entire country even if you know to some parts of the country it's not very effective but you still have workers who are still there and salaries need to be paid well however we're hoping that you know the government and the agency or the body itself the corporation would be you know thinking outside of the box to ensure that they're generating enough revenue so they can cater for their needs but with this introduction of the e-ticket right now the plan to introduce the e-ticketing you think that that would also help you know increase revenue for the corporation yes I think it will it will assist because it has been tried in Abuja that's what we do in our Abuja Kaduna trend and revenue generation has increased compared to the time that the e-ticketing was not in place so we are very very hopeful that that school increase revenue generation but you see we are talking about revenue generation is is is not just limiting ourselves within this Abuja Kaduna trend or Lagos Ibarra trend or Ibarra Ibarra we have the narrow gauge that cuts across 26 states in Nigeria this narrow gauge has been abandoned by the federal government and as we are talking we have been advising we have been thinking outside the box for them but implementation is what is becoming the issue because we have told them if you would buy a new off locomotive say if government can buy like 300 locomotives for the narrow gauge and coaches and wagons and you can imagine and because we then the narrow gauge starts from Lagos to Kanu up to Unguru in Yubi state it goes to Potakot from Lagos it goes to Meduguri from Potakot it goes to Meduguri from Lagos it goes to Joss it goes to all these 26 states I am talking about so imagine we having enough locomotive and enough coaches and wagons that will be running along this axis we are going to make a lot of money but the standard gauge they are basing their attention on does not cover up to 15 states in the whole nation so but yet that is where we depend on the revenue we are generating for now so if this narrow gauge will be put into efficient use we are going to generate far beyond what we are generating at the moment so that is our position so we wish government will take that option of of of reviving the standard gauge of course the ending revenue was very correct by saying we have workers all over the country that is very true because when you go to all these places that narrow gauge are we still have workers there and they are still being paid salaries though we have some trends like one trend that runs in a week passenger's trend from Lagos to Kanu and then we have pipe trends that runs from Lagos to Zarya then we equally have passenger's trends that runs from Kanu to Unguru and we also have another passenger trends that runs between Aba and Kotako so if they would be sustained and new locals would be put in place to run as it was running in the past I assure you that railway can pay itself all right Mr. Jiji on the final notes now do you think would get to a level very soon in Nigeria where instead of driving you know some distance within interstate and Nigerians would actually believe in the rail system and leave their cars at home and decide to opt for this rail travel anytime soon sorry come again I didn't get you don't I didn't get that do you see us getting to a state where or a state when Nigerians would actually want to leave their cars and would rather want to use the rail services you know in any in any time soon in Nigeria yes yes if I were we're already there because during the the two days one strike I was in Abuja to coordinate the Abuja branch of our union so that the strike would be very very effective there I saw a lot of cars parked in our stations these are parked cars that belongs to passengers who travel to Kaduna on our train with the hope of coming back on Thursday but unfortunately because of the industrial actions they couldn't come back and so their cars were still there up to Friday that I was still in that station so we are there already so but our deal is not yet enough which of course we are still agitating that government should do far more better than what they are doing now so that we get to a level that you don't need to use your car even from your home because if you go to outside country there are different kinds of trends that you will see around you see the tram you will see the the subway you see the bullet train but we don't have any of such trains here yet and all those trains I mentioned are electric trains and yet we are still using diesel trains even this modern train we are talking about is diesel locomotive that we are using we are not using electric gate in Nigeria so until we get there we would have efficient use of our rail system in Nigeria but for now we are close to getting all right thank you for your time indeed we have been speaking with a innocent a gg president general national union of real workers or railway workers and that we have been talking about and the strike or one strike that was just called off on saturday we do appreciate your time thank you very much all right that's the size of the show for today we want to say a very big thank you to all of you who have you know tuned in to watch that of course we talked about the fuel electricity system that is and of course the real workers calling off this track and that's it if you missed out on any part of the conversation it's all right to follow us on our social media platform on facebook and instagram it's at plus tv africa and youtube plus tv africa lifestyle i am messy vocal do you have a great morning and i'm justin katania join us momentarily for the news on the r bye for now