Infrastructure maintenance: the ‘ownership culture’ problem in Nigeria
Poorly maintained infrastructure depresses the quality of lives and contributes to anti-social behaviour that threatens the socio-political environment in Nigeria. Eliezer Workplace Management, a leading facility Management in Africa aims to change this writes Endurance Okafor.
It was a Saturday evening and hundreds of Lagosians were attending a wedding reception at the Tafawa Balewa Square. A gathering of the bourgeoisie mixed with the proletariat always come in a mix of merriment, eating and drinking. Although, nothing is really free, but there were free food and drinks on this occasion to go round.
The only problem was that there were no toilets anywhere in the complex where these Lagosians who had so much to eat and drink would go. Due to lack of a comfort station, the guests turned the complex into a huge public toilet.
The putrid smell polluted the environment and made it uncomfortable for anyone hanging around for long period of time.
This reflects how Nigerians treat public facilities and infrastructure.
In many countries of the world, including South Africa, citizens imbibe what is generally known as ‘ownership culture’ in infrastructure maintenance and management.
Ownership culture in this context alludes to a situation where citizens and government treat public infrastructure and facilities exactly the same way they handle their private property.
Few years ago in South Africa, a national fought another compatriot for throwing a plastic can outside a public bus. The attitude of South Africans to public infrastructure is that it is theirs and they must guard it.
However, this is not the case with Nigerians, especially in Lagos.
According to experts, ownership culture is beneficial not just to the citizens but also to the government.
“To participate effectively and actively in management and maintenance of infrastructures, we need to take ownership of those in our communities,” David Korede, the Executive Director of Eliezer Workplace Management, told BusinessDay by mail.
Apart from making cities attractive to visitors, it reduces the number of communicable diseases in the country and elongates the people’s lifespan.
Experts say Nigeria needs to spend three to four percent of its gross domestic product on infrastructure building and maintenance. Much of the expenditure goes to maintaining existing infrastructure stock.
Ownership culture helps to reduce maintenance spend on the part of the governments at the three tiers of government, enabling to concentrate on developing new infrastructure.
Experts in the facility management sector, such as Eliezer Workplace Management recommend the concept of ownership culture, as ownership does not only have to do with rights, liberties and powers but also carries with it corresponding burdens in the nature of duties, liabilities and disabilities which prescribe and regulate how an owner should utilise his property or infrastructure for their own benefit and also that of others.
The exponential growth of the population in Lagos State brings with it a unique challenge of inadequate infrastructure and a maintenance plan that is grossly insufficient for the sheer number of people who utilise public infrastructure.
A large flock of people migrate to Lagos on a daily basis in the hopes of getting opportunities and scarce white collar jobs. Akinwumi Ambode, Governor of Lagos state at a public function said that on average, about 123,000 people migrate to Lagos daily from different parts of Nigeria.
If half that number truly migrates to Lagos every day then there is truly magnificent nightmare in terms of infrastructural sufficiency in relations to the population.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Waste Management disclosed that the centre of excellence generates between 12,000 metric tons to 13,000 metric tons of waste daily.
This is generated by an estimated 20 million population which are said to be inhabitants of the most populous city in Africa.
Lagos population in 1871 stood at 28,000 and grew to about 252,000 in the 1970’s, today, Lagos population is one of the highest around the world, and it almost same as the population of Ghana.
Considering these numbers, it is necessary therefore to have appropriate Assets and Facilities Management plan in the state, as effectively managed facilities in line with modern ways of organizing and structuring maintenance, will bring about the tendency for increase in life expectancy and sustainability of values.
Maintenance of public properties is described as the combination of any continuous actions carried out to retain properties and infrastructure or restore it to an acceptable condition. Maintenance culture is concerned with the planning and control of construction resources to ensure that they are necessary take care of or repaired and renewal is also carried out with maximum efficiency and economy to enhance the quality of the property.
Recent survey by Eliezer Workplace Management shows that adoption of ownership concept will have a positive effect on growth, economic stability and reduce cost of maintenance. Individual attitude, lack of proper maintenance culture has major influence on the present condition of the existing infrastructures.
The idea of ‘Ownership Culture’ is encompassing; it involves accepting responsibility, personal accountability, creativity and innovation especially using ownership judgment and making independent but learned decisions in promoting growth and development.
This sounds simple and straightforward, but taking ownership actually has a cultural dimension. In some cultures, it is expected and often times rewarded when people take ownership of tasks while it is punished and ridiculed in some cultures.
In Nigeria, the culture does not support or reward independent and innovative thinking especially when the risks of failure are considered too high or when the consequences of failure may be too steep to bear.
This leads therefore to the premise of adopting ownership culture to management of Lagos State Assets, Infrastructure & Environment and also to the country at large.
The Lagos-based, leading facility Management, Eliezer Workplace Management, introduced an initiative tagged “My Lagos, Our Lagos,” this was derived from finding a balance between Policies that government can create, to how every day Lagosian engage the policies and its interaction with the infrastructures and environment.
Maintenance culture in Nigeria is one of the lowest around the world, especially, in principal towns and cities like Lagos where the majority of public properties and infrastructures are located.
In the rural areas, the story is different and pleasant to hear. The traditional practice of communal clearing of community owned places such as market playground is in almost every village and in private homes. Also, it is customary to refurbish building interiors with mixtures of cow dung or natural red clay. The end result is attractive and totally indigenous.
While on the other hand, low priority is accorded to property management in the urban areas which leads to neglect of public infrastructures. There are also little or no maintenance policies and therefore no such culture exists. Neglect of maintenance has accumulated consequences in rapid increase in the deterioration of the fabric and finishes of public infrastructure, accompanied by a harmful effect on the contents users (the residents and beneficiaries of the infrastructures).
Due to poor maintenance culture on one hand and partly due to the absence of an appropriate benchmark, the life of these public infrastructural development do not last before reaching the total obsolescence state.
When this happens, it becomes a big problem for both the government and the inhabitants of the state, and as such there is the need for both parties to treat such infrastructure as though they were their private investment, in order to get the best of the development through proper maintenance policy and habits.
Knowing that only knowledgeable citizens make informed decision, Eliezer Workplace Management, director, Korede said “the company is committed to taking the practice of Facilities Management in Africa to International best practice through education, technology, and information using Nigeria as a pilot.”
All Lagosian who works and reside in Lagos will eventually arrive at a crucial intersection, also with the government involvement in both maintenance and infrastructural development, this initiative believes at some point, the residents of Lagos state will turn right and buy-in to attitude of ownership management style regardless of status, tribe gender and ethnicity.
Turning this direction means that every resident will be ready to work in same direction and put a stop into improper utilization and management of state infrastructure or facilities.
The Lagos State and Nigeria government by extension are also to play their part by engaging its citizenry on ownership concept awareness across the length and breadth of the state by establishing a social group to re-engineer the society.
Sensitization of the populace to achieving positive waste management culture towards proper waste handling and disposal cannot be overemphasized.