Years back, the premises of Nigerian post offices used to be central points for organisations, families and schools to receive or send letters and other parcels. But, in the past 15 years, NIPOST has had to grapple with the challenges of ICT, forcing a paradigm shift from established modes of conducting business. What has been the effect of this intense competition from the new media? This is the focal point of this report by Head, Special Investigations, Isioma Madike
A time was, when a visit to the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) offices across the country, was to be planned. This is because of the waiting time before being attended to. It was a time those, who patronise them had to be on a queue that stretches from the main halls to the outlying streets for hours. To buy just a postal stamp then, was exceptional tasking. But, not anymore!
Today, most of the NIPOST premises could be likened to a cemetery. What used to be hubs of activities are no longer so. Most of the ancient buildings, though not lacking in architectural aesthetics, now stand like gloomy edifices. At the Ikeja General Post Office, located on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way on Tuesday, June 11, there were just a pocket of people by a counter. Out of about five counters, only two had people in them.
The others were empty. Even some of the attendants on the empty counters had their heads down, indication of staff that had nothing to do. The Special Delivery Service area where courier and other services are supposed to be taking place, were not any better. No one could be seen to be buying the conventional stamps either. That section too, was devoid of any life. Marina NIPOST, which is the territorial office, is equally lying in waste. The edifice is also gasping for salvation as well as begging for renovation. The Security Post, where a visitor should normally register his presence, could only qualify as "lottery kiosk."
The elevators, which are of colonial mode, are equally out of order. The ones on each floor were shut; they appeared abandoned for years. It irritates that most post offices across the country are now in shabby and disgraceful conditions, particularly those belonging to private managers like the Postal Agencies and the Sub-Post Offices. This poor image of NIPOST may not only be due to the declining quality of its services but also as a result of the dilapidated state of its buildings, which now constitute an eyesore across the country; a pointer to the fact that post offices are becoming irrelevant.
However, Sunday Mirror's request to speak with the Area Postal Manager, was not successful. By virtue of the civil service rule, he was not qualified to speak to the Press. "My brother, only Abuja can talk to you," he said.
But, other Nigerians, who have had the privilege of using post offices in the 1960s through the '90s, spoke. For instance, a 69-year-old resident of Oyingbo area of Lagos, who simply identified himself as Pa Jimoh, says, "when I was growing up, our mail was delivered to a box at a street corner that was less than 10 minutes walk away from our home. So, it was a 20 minutes round trip to pick up mail and drop off mail at the same box.
'Post offices in shabby, disgraceful conditions'
"I think the problem is that we are now used to telephones, SMS and instant messaging with the invention of information technology where sending mail is getting faster all the time. It's just unfortunate that the younger people now find the physical postal/courier business a great inconvenience. It's not like post offices have moved outside of town, they're in the same places. Though, for the last couple of decades, the classic urban post office has disappeared from many cities and has been replaced by privately run 'postal outlets' all across this Nation. Here in Oyingbo, a small place around the post office, addressed as a Postal Agency is now three kilometres away in a pedestrian-unfriendly traditional area. The postal outlets that replaced it do not provide the equivalent services. For example, some do not accept postal stamps if not money order. Others do not have 24-hour access to mailboxes as the old post offices," he affirmed.
Mallam Ahmed Jaji, public affairs commentator, who lives at Akute in Ogun State, also told Sunday Mirror that he last visited the post office 10 years ago. "These days, an average Nigerian makes use of the electronic media. I make use of my facebook page, my phone and the internet via my email. To me, NIPOST isn't functioning hence, it should be scraped", he suggested.
A retired nurse, Mrs Abike Balogun, could not equally remember sending a letter through the post office since the inception of the internet and social media. "I talk to family and friends via facebook, emails and l send text messages. To be honest, the social media is not helping our children because they do not read and they can hardly write; they fail woefully in written examinations. We should learn to balance everything we do because it is wrong to forget a good habit because of a new trend in town that is not so healthy. Posterity wouldn't forgive us if the negligence is left to go on this way. The government can make NIPOST to come alive again", she said. Another middle-age woman, Mrs Oluwatoyin Mordi, said, "I haven't used the post office in my whole life, but l have made used of DHL. These days, l uses my phone to call my friends, family and loved ones all over the world. I send text messages with my phone too. I use the internet to access my facebook page, my email, my twitter account and all that. I would be selfish to wish that NIPOST should be scraped because people living in the villages may not have this same opportunity to access the internet, hence they would need the postal agency," Mordi said.
Indeed, the younger generations of Nigerians do not feel comfortable using the post office nowadays. Incidentally, the issue is not only that fewer people now visit the post offices but that NIPOST actually has less to offer them. The dawn of the 21st century witnessed the advent of super technology known as the Information Communications Technology (ICT). Thus NIPOST, which was turning a new leaf, had to grapple with the challenges of ICT, forcing a paradigm shift from established modes of conducting business. It brought in its trail, e-mail, internet facilities, computers and satellites, which have had tremendous impact on postal activities in the country. Many have argued that using the social media brings about intimacy and speed of sending messages. In developed countries, news breaks on tweeter and anyone, who is on tweeter, is sure of getting the story across to thousands at a time.
There is also the problem of mail pilfering in the Nigeria postal system. Some have likened sending of money or other precious items through the post office to giving an armed robber a house key. Others say letters get lost in transit or could come perforated, or torn to expose some valuable contents in them. The Post Clerks in some localities have also been accused of conspiring to ensure that letters do not get to their destinations. Lost in transit is the popular explanation for that.
A 70-years-old retiree from Enugu State civil service, Raymond Okonkwo, said that he started using the Post Office around 1960 when NIPOST was the only means of delivering letters and other parcels. He recalled that the services were very efficient at that time and people enjoyed it. He however, said that he does not use it any longer since the arrival of GSM. Okonkwo said he also jettisoned NIPOST when people started complaining of letters not getting to their destinations and dumping of mails at rubbish heaps. "That is why people stated going away from it. I know it still exists but for over five years now, I can't remember going to any post office. If I have an urgent mail now I go to DHL, which is faster in service delivery despite the fact that it is more costly," he said.
Another Enugu resident, 68-year-old Adisu Uzoagballa, from Achi in Oji River local government area, said he owns and still operates a post office box in his community and receives mails from it, especially his share dividends letters. He said he grew up to know about post office and started using it in his primary school days when it was being used to convey mails to families even in the village but that much of it is not in use today became of technological advancement, particularly the mobile phones and internet. "The post office is no longer as useful as it used to be in those days. Then, there was telex but today you can even discuss with somebody in overseas, he will be seeing you and you will be seeing him; it was not like that then," he revealed.
For Madu Aja, a school teacher, "I can trace the modes of communication from when mails used to come through ships, limiting technology then to time frame. But, the new technology has drastically reduced that. Post offices are still relevant because there are some documents that have to come through it like the share certificates, publications and some other hardcopies. But then, even the cost of post offices has escalated and today, they are mostly located at urban areas. I think the impact is likely to be felt more in the rural areas. They should also look at the cost of owning a post box so that people in the village can afford and patronise it. If post offices can penetrate the 774 local government areas in the country, they will make great impact. And if NIPOST wants to remain relevant, they should have facilities like their competitors," Aja suggested.
Dr. Peter Emeka Katchy, associate professor of complementary and alternative medicine based in Onitsha, Anambra State has identified politics of managing public enterprises in Nigeria as one of the factors that led to the declining patronage of post office in the country. He noted that civil service attitude in serious lucrative ventures and institutions were instrumental to the declining patronage of post office. He added that obsolete method of postal service system and lack of adequate delivery vans pushed NIPOST into a disadvantaged position. According to Katchy, "no orientation and motivation to staff of NIPOST; Lack of fidelity and dedication from the staff, also caused the loss of public trust in the institution." He also identified the lopsided system of appointments at the apex management levels of NIPOST.
He said, "picking old hands that is about to retire to revive the system, will promote lack of zeal and would produce nothing new in the system. Old, tired hands have also become part of the factors responsible for the declining patronage of post offices across the country."
'... it's no longer relevant, it should be scrapped'
The Secretary-General of Anambra State Markets Amalgamated Traders Association (AMATAS), Chuma Eruchalu, however, went down memory lane and recalled that during his secondary and university school days, he relied so much on the post office to the extent that there was no week he did not write and post a letter to his friends and relations. Eruchalu regretted that the declining patronage of post office started in the past 15 to 20 years when people stopped posting letters and buying postage stamps. "That was about the time ICT took over. It is either you do an SMS through your mobile phone or through the e-mail that have lots of speed advantages over the postal service system. I still have a post office box and still maintain it till date but it is now only for the collection of dividend warrant for shares. NIPOST staff contributed 80 per cent of the problem. Sometimes, you will not receive posted letters for six months, only to see some parcels discarded in refuge dumps and erosion sites; these eroded peoples' confidence in the system. Courier service operators that are more efficient, took advantage of this situation as customers are more confident that their letters will get to their various destinations safe and in good time, even if it might cost them more to do so," he said.
In Kaduna, only a handful of customers still visit the ancient colonial building that housed the general post office along Yakubu Gowon Way. When Sunday Mirror visited the NIPOST office on Thursday, June 13, few staff were seen offering skeletal services to customers, who were there to post or buy duty stamps. Many of them, who spoke to our reporter, noted that the advent of internet and the accompanying social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Email, e-transactions and the GSM, have taken over the old system as postal services are no longer fashionable.
Elder John Fwah also narrated how the agency was in the 1960s and regretted its present status. "If I remembered vividly, before 1960 when we were in primary school, posting letters were cheap. We used British pounds and shillings then and just two penny stamps per letter. We used air letter card for six pence, just for you to write on it and send for air mail. That was very good for government in those days. Then NIPOST offices were mostly found in cities like Kaduna, Ibadan, Enugu, Kano and Lagos. But now, there is a drastic change; if you look at the method of letter delivery in those days, it was manual but fast. The letter postman used bicycles from street to street in uniform delivering letters with letter bags hanging on his bicycle. The street used to have a box and you are sure of getting your letter; there was no breaking of box. We also used telegram; it was faster than normal letter. But now, internet and GSM have taken over completely. Post offices are only surviving now because they are government agencies, if not they would have closed shop. Government should privatise NIPOST for efficient service delivery and proper revenue generation," he suggested.
'Post office now only useful for collecting dividends warrants'
For Prince Bimbola Makanjuola, an Ibadan-based businessman, "sending or receiving letters through the post office was always a delight some years back such that whenever I had letters sent to me, I took delight in reading them." Today, however, Makanjuola is lamenting the way and manner things have changed in that sector. "Post offices all over the country are no longer reliable to serve the people," he said. According to him, as a secondary school student, he took it as a duty to write his parents at least twice in a month to let them know how he was faring, knowing full well that he would also get a reply from them. "It was like a competition then among the students to be the one to write and send the highest number of letters as doing such contributed to their mastery of the English Language. This habit continued until I travelled abroad for my higher studies through to the time I returned back to the country in the early 1980s.
"I still believe that there is no best form of communication than through letter; through it, you will be able to decipher the depth of thought of the writer and during our school days, we had different kinds of writings, more so that writing was an integral part of the school curriculum then. On my part, I still have copies of letters written and received more than 20 years ago; I used them to relieve the old days.
Another Ibadan resident and retired soldier-journalist, Abiodun Afolabi, said most of the people in the late 1950s and early 1960s, will be happy to return to the days of writing and posting letters. Afolabi, who is meticulous in keeping documents, stated that most Nigerians, including himself do not patronise the post offices again because some postmasters have ruined the lives of many people. "I think it is no longer news that in the past, even before the introduction of ICT, we used to hear of letters dumped in streams all over the country. Rather than for the people employed as postmasters to do their job, they will pile the letters meant for people somewhere without delivering them to those they were meant for," he said.
Another 73-year-old and retired military officer in Abeokuta, Pa Akinola Bello also recounted his experiences and familiarity with the Postal Service, which he described as not too good then. "During the civil war, I was writing letters to let them know that I was still alive. In those days, each time we write, there were officials in the Army that would take them to the post offices for postage. Then, if we send postal orders or money orders, our people will reply that they did not get the things sent. That usually took about 30 days and maybe it was due to the situation of the country then that was causing the delay and late delivery of letters. There were some dubious characters among the personnel of the postal service then, some of us, who hadn't the experience, would enclose cash and it would just disappear. So, before the letter would get to our parents and wives, the officials of the postal service would have removed the cash. Even the postal order too; occasionally, they used to steal it," Bello alleged.
Meanwhile, the Postmaster General of NIPOST, Mallam Ibrahim Baba, has said that modern technology has not been a threat to the operation of the agency. He believes that the advancement in technology such as internet, fax and e-mail had rather improved on service delivery to customers nationwide. According to him, postal service still remains relevant in spite of the ICT era. He sees information technology as a plus to NIPOST, adding that it only enhanced NIPOST service delivery. "Modern technology complemented the effort of the postal service globally; it's not a threat. ICT should be seen as something that has enhanced activities not only in an organisation but to people. You can go there and look at issues of medicine, issues of other area of endeavour. So, ICT is rather complementing our mail delivery rather than a threat,'' he insisted.
He, however, noted that NIPOST of 21st century is quite different. "This is certainly because of the advent of the new technology. So, as far as we are concerned, we are not actually on the back seat, because we are providing different types of communication services. We are more of person to person, rather than those that you will just pick your phone and speak to a person and so on; ours is beyond that. We want to believe that we will always continue to be relevant as far as communication in this century is concerned," Baba said.
Of all the departments that the departing colonial administration handed over to the new Nigerian government in 1960, the communications sub-sector was considered the most viable in terms of human and material resources. The Post and Telecommunications/Telegraphs (P&T) started as a purely civil service department in the Ministry of Communications. On the attainment of independence in 1960, P&T, few years later in 1966 was given a quasi-commercial status. It covered a little over 60 per cent of the Nigerian landscape. Then in the early '60s, the best medium of communication (letters on postage) with distant relations across the length and breadth of the country was the Post, which had the best potential for growth.
The P&T even in the 1980s showed remarkable promise of business growth, which encouraged the Federal Government to carve out two agencies from it; the Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL) and the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST).Thus in 1992, NIPOST became autonomous. The military administration, though, promulgated Decree 18 of 1987, barely two and half years of NIPOST, that act was not enough to bring about the desired change and impact needed to turn around the fortunes of postal services. Thus, the NIPOST management under Postmaster General, Nathaniel Zome, fought hard to lay a solid foundation for the agency, resulting in another Decree, (Decree 41 of 1992).
According to Zome, "the most fundamental and far reaching transformation of NIPOST took place between 1989 and 1993. NIPOST was thus launched into the league of billionaire government parastatals, through concerted effort to re-orientate staff in terms of 'workshops, retreats, it was possible to forge a focus, direction, vision, mission and purpose for it, culminating in fashioning out of a corporate and perspective business plans, operating and marketing strategies."
Incidentally, this brought about reforms in the sector and many staff were either retired or retrenched. However, several years after retirement, the staff affected are still fighting to get their full entitlements. It took several hours of appeals by Deputy Postmaster-General, Yacim Bitiyong, to pacify retirees, who stormed the institution's headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, June 11, to demand payment of their pensions, including gratuities and severance package allegedly owed them by NIPOST. The protesters comprised those who completed the 35 years of service stipulated by law and others who fell victims of 2006 downsizing policy of the Federal Government in the parastatal. Led by two Assistant-General Secretaries of Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Messrs Bunmi Ogunkolade and Ahmed Gazani, the protesters blocked the entrance of NIPOST headquarters, calling for urgent intervention from the institution's leadership.
A former Chief Supervisor with the parastatal, Aminu Adamu, said the protest was as a result of backlog of arrears, harmonisation, and failure of payment of pension among others. "We have been on this issue since 2010. We are all retirees. Federal Government approved N1.7billion for NIPOST pensioners in February this year. There was a memorandum duly signed by the Post-Master-General that this money would be paid when the budget is approved. Now, the budget has been approved and we did not hear anything. March came; they said we should wait till April. April came; they said we should wait till May. May came; they are now telling us that there is a committee they set up. We are tired of all these. That is why we are here. We came here to remain until our problem is solved," he told Sunday Mirror.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) had recently threatened to embark on nationwide industrial action as a result of long-standing pension crises in the country. The threat was immediately handled by President Goodluck Jonathan as he ordered immediate release of fund for payment of the pensions. But not all pensioners have benefited from this directive.
Additional reports from Marcus Fatunmole (Abuja), Dennis Agbo (Enugu), Kemi Olaitan (Ibadan), Aza Msue (Kaduna), Nwabueze Okonkwo (Onitsha) and Femi Oyeweso (Abeokuta).
National Mirror