The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has admonished the newly inaugurated Board members of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), not to differ from the policies of the previous Board led by Engr. Usman Sandamu, in order to accelerate development rail sector.
While inaugurating the new Board in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister said the former Board led by Sandamu did well in projects evaluation and inspections that contributed to the development of the sector.
“The former Chairman maybe because of his engineering background used to analyse all our policies and will tell me that if I were you, I will do this, and 80 per cent of the time, he was right,” he stated.
Amaechi charged the members to continue from where the former Board stopped in order to avoid conflicts that would stall the development of the rail system in Nigeria.
“Let us continue from where the last chairman stopped. I hope we will work together. I will not let anybody slow us down or whoever becomes the minister,” Amaechi said.
He, again charged the members particularly the Chairman that, “in the performance of your functions as Chairman and Board Members, it is expedient for you to note the need to engender harmonious working relationship with the management of the corporation so as to achieve the objectives of the government.
ALSO READ: N2.5bn fraud: NBC boss, Kawu, Omoluwa, others docked, get N100m bail each
“As Governing Board Members, you are responsible for setting out the parastatal’s economic, financial, operational administrative policies in accordance with government policy directives aimed at assisting the corporation to achieve its mandate.
“You are also charged with the responsibilities for measuring performance against targets and introducing broad policy measures that will curtail any deviations to ensure that the targets are achieved. However, the Board should not be involved directly in the day to day management of the parastatal,” he explained.
In his response, the Board Chairman of NRC, Engr. Ibrahim Alhassan Musa commended the minister for the achievement so far attended in the rail sector.
“It takes more than a gold braid to make a captain by being the driving force behind the recent successes recorded in the railway development in Nigeria, especially the continued operation of the Abuja-Kaduna rail lifeline.”
He assured that the new Board would bring in their experience to bear on the much-needed railway infrastructure as a means of improving the Nigerian economy.
The Board has twenty-six members, twenty-two of the members are nominated at the state level while the office of the Minister of Transport is mandated to appoint four members. The twenty-two members were inaugurated while four vacancies await the appointment of the Minister.
and then