The senior management of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) converged for the first time at the Railway village, Owa Oyibu town near Agbor, Delta State for the annual retreat.
This year’s retreat with the theme “NRC moving towards higher standard” is coming at a time in the life of the present President Muhammadu Buhari’s quest to inject vibrancy into the nation’s rail system and make it operational after many years of neglect.
The gathering by the top management of the over one century old NRC recently availed the participants the opportunity to brainstorm and equally inspect the rehabilitation of the abandoned Itakpe-Ajaokuta/Warri Standard Gauge Rail Line, preparatory to its commission soon.
The retreat which was meant to encourage team work in the evaluation of the preceding year’s key performance indicators was also a platform to fashion out strategic master plan that will be a guiding and working document for implementation by all the respective departments towards operational proficiency in the transportation industry in Nigeria.
In a statement by Yakub Mahmood, deputy director in charge of public relations, the theme for this year’s retreat was consciously chosen to be in tandem with the Federal Government Railway Modernization Project, as well as supporting President’s vision of transforming the rail industry into world class transport system that can drive the Nigerian economy.
In his presentation at the retreat, Fidet Okhiria, the managing director, NRC, set out the “2018 Strategic Direction” for the corporation as stated above, which among others include; Improving on rolling stock availability, inculcating staff discipline, support and encourage contractors on the completion of all the on-going railway modernization projects.
Compliance to these he said is imperative for optimal operational and administrative productivity. Okhiria tasked the management to build more interdepartmental synergy that is devoid of bottle-necks which hinders prompt response to official matters, resulting in blame game syndrome as against the prompt transparent collective responsibility principles.
Earlier in his speech, Usman Abubakar, the chairman NRC charged the staff to brace up to the challenges that will be associated with the on-going railway modernization projects across the country.
He listed such challenges as operational timeliness, top class customer services and regular information dissemination which are fundamentals in modern transportation business.
He commended the management and the entire staff of the NRC, for their resilience and hard work despite, some short comings which the management is proffering solution in order to assist tremendously in achieving higher level of operational performance beyond last year.
This according to him is reciprocal to the present administration efforts towards ensuring that NRC retains its role as the major player in the socio-economic development of the country.
The retreat ended with a Gala night where awards were given to deserving retirees and long service staff that contributed to the corporation growth and development. Among the awardees was Abubakar Labaran, the Managing Director, Railway Property Management Company Limited.
MIKE OCHONMA
