During wedding preparations, brides employ professional makeup artists to decorate their faces with special cosmetics. Yet, after the initial decoration, bridesmaid stays close to monitor and adjust the decoration and looks. She holds a box of extra cosmetics, napkins and other decoration kits to refresh the bride’s looks. Without vigilant bridesmaids, the bride’s appearance may deteriorate midway into the celebration. Also, without monitoring and maintaining infrastructural projects in the society, they depreciate.
Progressive societies are formed by different peoples’ agreement to collaborate in developing their resources to produce what they need. These societies form different bodies to enable and harmonize their industrial initiatives. And the governing bodies are empowered to create enabling environments for people’s education, security and industry. Thus, various regimes undertake widespread education and industrial exercises to inspire the highest possible productivity, wealth-creation and harmony among citizens. These industrial exercises result in the building of schools, hospitals, roads, houses and other social amenities.
Like other elements in nature, these wonderful projects begin to depreciate with time and constant use. Hence, reasonable governments institute periodic monitoring agents to evaluate and repair these projects according to their lifespan or use. The agencies approve, tax and steadily monitor the quality of service in the society. In cases where government agencies are not responsible for maintaining private projects, they still monitor these projects for safety before and after licensing them. This is why many infrastructural edifices in developed nations last several years and still retain their standard service.
The scale of infrastructural decay in Nigeria suggests the absence or inefficiency of maintenance and monitoring activities in Nigeria. National stadiums, airports, public universities, offices and hospitals, roads, waste-management, water-cooperation, power grid and other edifices exemplify the decay. Even some locally owned private institutions seem lacking in the monitoring and maintenance culture. Some factors responsible for this lack of project monitoring and maintenance include:
- Nigeria’s social structure: Colonialists formed Nigeria by yoking various unconsented kingdoms and communities under a militarized government for exploiting natural resources.[1] The militarized government seizes and sells the different peoples’ resources with the pledge of providing social services to the people.[2][3][4] Then, the states, local governments, kingdoms and wards keep begging the federal government for social services. The frustration in always begging for social services often weakens people’s zeal to take charge of their environment. This attitude eventually sips into the peoples private and official lives, to neglect damages or seek excuses.
- Nigerians’ incapacity to build the infrastructure themselves: due to the confiscation of their resources, Nigerians are unable to fully develop their ability to produce social service amenities.[5] Even when they develop the ability outside Nigeria, they are politically denied access to resources for producing what they need. So, everybody depends on government to permit the importation amenities for social service.
- Avenue for embezzlement and rewarding loyalists: the central government reserves the right to award contracts to firms for any project it deems fit. With this power, government officials can award inflated and unsupervised contracts to their cronies’ or their own companies. Since the contract-winning companies are more interested in the funds, they may not provide any or quality services for their pay.
- No independent industrial courts for prosecuting project mismanagement: the imposed Nigerian constitution enables the executive government to appoint,[6] dismiss and fund the chief judges. So, being dependent on executive for appointment and funding, the judiciary may not be confident to prosecute executive cases of project mismanagement.
- White elephant projects that do not align with people’s needs: social amenities generate enough funds for monitoring and maintenance from stable patronage. However, Nigerian governments often install costly, alien and complex amenities that do not respond to the people’s real needs. So, the infrastructure may not earn the funds for monitoring and maintaining them. For instance, building an Etihad-standard stadium for a jobless and uncomfortable people may not yield returns apart from vandalism. Instead, building industries, schools and banks that respond to people’s immediate needs of productivity and sustenance promises better returns.
- Alienated educational system: Due to Nigeria’s colonial system and economy, parents neglect their domestic duties and children’s informal education in pursuit of money.The formal education system emphasises memorization and reproduction of information without physical practice to get things done. Thus, there is a corporate disposition to miraculously command maintenance of existing infrastructure through computer or prayers.
Despite these factors, the average Nigerian loves to see and use beautiful things, even if he does not understand it. Fortunately, Nigerians are always ready to contribute in achieving defined social goals when properly enlightened and integrated. Yet, like education, monitoring and maintenance culture may not be cultivated in Nigeria without reorganizing the social structure. For as long as the people are unable to use their resources in solving their own problems, monitoring and maintenance may not be possible. So, the different peoples yoked into Nigeria and denied access to their resources have to find new ways to navigate this challenge as follows.
- Reorder the social structure: Nigeria’s yoked ethnic communities and kingdoms have to discuss and agree on how to partner with one another in Nigeria. Then, they can train their people to use their resources to produce what they need and trade, and be able to remit percentile tax to the central government. Then government will be able to provide the necessary amenities for trade and productivity between the sections.
- Nigerian engineers have to provide their infrastructure: when Nigerians can own and use their resources to produce what they need, then they can aim to provide the necessary infrastructure by themselves. And by providing quality social amenities, more sections in Nigeria will contract them for more patronage.
- Establishment of industrial courts: a responsible government can then create and enable special courts for academic and industrial cases in Nigeria.
- Focus on necessary projects for the society: with more inclusion in deciding projects, the several sections formed from the agreement of ethnic communities will decide and focus on the relevant social services for enabling productivity and progress among their people. These projects will focus on schools, specific industries for specific sections and financial institutions for the schools and industries.
- Repositioning Nigerian education develop a responsible mentality and maintenance culture.
Though it appears difficult, Nigerians can and will build a maintenance culture to maintain Nigeria.
[1] cf. Richard Dowden, Africa altered states, ordinary miracles. (New York: Public Affairs, 2010). p.445
[2] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 2
[3] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 2, paragraph 1
[4] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 3
[5] Ogban Ogban-Iyam, Re-Inventing Nigeria through Pre-colonial Traditions In Issues in contemporary political economy of Nigeria.edited by Hassan A. Saliu.(Ilorin: T.A. Olayeri press, 1999). P73
[6] Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, section 231