The Role of Postal Service in Nation Building
By Goke Odeyinka
Recently I read two interesting articles written by some well-informed gentlemen, that dwelt extensively on the Postal Service and its relevance to the society especially with the revolution now going on in the communications sector.
The first article written by one Obo Effanga Jr. with the caption 'Who Still Needs The Post Office?' raised some salient points concerning the role that the Post should play in every society. He lamented that some unscrupulous organizations especially private transport operators cashed in on the lethargy of me Nigerian Postal Service at that time to poach on businesses that naturally belong to the Postal industry. In me writer's opinion, NIPOST should make concerted efforts to comd thb anomaly and take back what belongs to it
The second articie titled "Repackaging NIPOST: A Little Late" was written by my very good friend Jossy Nkwocha, ex-Vanguard, ex-Newswatch editor and now Managing Director of Zoom Lens Promotions Ltd., a Media/Public Relations outfit based in Lagos.
Much as I agree with Mr. Effanga that NIPOST had for too long allowed many organizations to hliack its businesses and that the public should not be blamed for patronizing them, I wouW like to contest Jossy's submission that with the advent of GSM phones, e-mail and internet facilities Nigerians discovered that they didn't need NIPOST anymore.
Of course the reason for Jossy's conclusion is understandable. Perhaps, a cursory look at history becomes pertinent at this juncture. It is significant to note that the history of humanity has been marked by fundamental changes in the way we live and work. Many of these changes were brought about by revolution in communication. Through communication people can exchange ideas and thoughts and therefore reduce conflicts and wars.
When Nigeria gained her independence in 1960, the Post occupied a pre-eminent position in the national scheme of things thus providing infrastructure, which helped to reduce the social, political, economic and cultural isolation of our people. It also facilitated the establishment of small and medium scale businesses in our villages. In those gbrious days, cusomers' expectations were largely met and postal services remained indispensable in the lives of very many Nigerians. Then came the era of military rule and the general economic recession. More than anything many years of military rule in Nigeria frustrated Postal service and gave it a leprous status. As such nobody wanted to associate with the Post. It was at this period that Telecommunications services gained very high premium in national scheme of things. It was also at this period that private courier service made incursion into postal business.
But the point should be made clear that all methods of communication are complimentary to one another. It is a fact that access to mobile phones and Internet cafes' has given the population especially those in urban areas a wider choice of communication but that is not to say that there existence has in any way diminished the rob of the Post in the society. In most countries of the world the whole population has easy access to postal services. The obligation to serve all citizens, whether they live in cities or remote rural areas is central to the Post. This is what is known as "universal service" and this is not yet the case for telephone and Internet services. Electronk mail is still very limited in many regions of the world.
There is no doubt that technological developments pose a challenge to the Post but should not be seen as a threat to core postal services since they create new opportunities for the Postal sector to increase its share in the Communications market. Many modern means of communication actually generate physical mail, which supports the prediction of an overall increase in mail volumes arising from technobgical devabpments.
I believe that the effective utilization of technobgy will result in the overall improvement in the quality of postal services and consequently increase its share in the market. However, the objective of this write-up is to examine the relevance of postal service with the emergence of new communication technobgies such as Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), e-mail and Internet services.
lndeed, to talk about Postal service, which is a communication medium within the context of social, economic and political growth is to talk about the role of the Post Office in national life. For centuries, the Post has remained one of the most reliable means of communication. It is the closest to the people at the grassroots and allows them easy access to communication, which in turn generates dynamic economic activities. It promotes job creation and economic empowerment among rural dwellers with little stress and bottlenecks thereby helping in reducing migration from rural to urban areas.
In those days, people know and trust their local Post offices and were confident that if they needed to send money and parcels to their friends, relatives or loved ones, then the Post office was the most convenient and reliable pubik institution to fulfil their needs.
To fully understand the importance of Postal Service as an instrument for socio-economic and political growth of any nation, it is perhaps necessary to have a full understanding of the development of Postal service in Nigeria. The British colonialists established the first Post office in Nigeria in 1851 as an extension of the London Post Offioe to service their adminisbative and economic interests. Later as thelr trade interest through the Royal Niger Company expanded more Post offices were established in Akassa, Burutu, Cabbar and Warri.
It is important to note that the London Post Office was a forerunner of the development of Postal and Telecommunication services in Nigeria. Increase in economic interests of the colonialists further led to the establishment of the Posts ans Telecommunications Department (P&T;) to cater for the postal and telecommunications needs of the people. This department functioned under the Ministry of Communications until 1985 when the then Federal Military Government split the defunct P&T; Department and established the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) while the telecommunications arm was merged with the Nigerian External Telecommunications (NET) to form what is today known as Nigerian Telecommunations Limited (NITEL).
The creation of NIPOST underscores the fact that the Post remains a fundamental means of communication between people, serving as an essential instrument for national unity, economic, social and cultural development. The separation of the Post and Telecom entities in both the devabping and developed countries of the world is a global trend meant to address the inefficiencies in both sectors. Although the Postal sector was often considered unreliable and unresponsive to market needs yet it represents a significant proportion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and also a large employer of labour. It is in recognition of this fact that the World Bank's Private Sector Department and the United Nations Devebpment Programme started promoting worldwide Postal reform concepts, especially in deveoping countries like Nigeria.
NIPOST's functions include: to develop, promote and provide adequate and efficiently coordinated and economic postal services at fair and reasonable rates; to maintain an effcient system of collection, sorting and delivery of mail nationwide to establish and maintain postal facilities of such character and in such location consistent with reasonable economics as will enabb the generality of the public to have ready access to essential postal services.
It is instructive to note that over the years NIPOST has contributed immensely in promoting Nigeria's socio-economic and political growth in addition to performing its statutory function of collecting and delivery of mail. Some of these contributions are in the areas of employment, improvement of literacy level and promotion of national ethos.
Employment is one of the indicators of socio-economic and political growth. In fact, an important political agendum of any government is the creation of jobs for its citizens. The Postal service is one of the public institutions, which employs a substantial portion of people. NIPOST's workforce of about 15,000 who work in its network spread in every nook and cranny of the country makes it the second largest employer of labour to perhaps the Ministry of Work and Housing. The level of employment by NIPOST is evenly spread nationwide. In West Africa, the Post is the second largest net employer apart from Agriculture and relabed industries.
NIPOST has been the improvement of literacy hwel, which is important for any meaningful socio-economic growth. As an important member of the Universal Postal Union, NIPOST has been organizing Essay competitions for school children with the objective of inculcating reading and writing habits in them. The organizaffon also creates a medium for school children to correspond with sebeted Pen pals worldwide.
Over the years, NIPOST has promoted the best of Nigeria's culture, life, arts, history and tradition through its postage stamps. All over the world, postage stamps are known to be a powerful medium of communication, which publicizes the special characteristics of a nation. The stamps of any country help us to know very many things about that country without us necessarily being there.
The Post is a crucial but often overlooked force for economk development because it serves as an intermediary between business organizations and their customers for the exchange of goods and sewices. It also acts as a wealth creator for people in rural areas.
While the role of the Post has broadened and expanded over the years, its main mission remains to provide universal qualitative postal service that accessible, affordable and reliable. If the Postal service is well funded it is capabb of transforming the economy of any nation. It is true that there is an explosion of the Communications market and that electronic communication is growing at a much faster rate than physical mail. However, the challenge for providers of postal services is therefore to adapt quickly, to introduce new products and services, and to ensure quality, security and speed in service delivery in order to retain their customers and expand their market share.
It is worthy to note that despite the generally unfavourabb economic situation, productivity, quality of service, range of products on offer and volume of mail traffic have continued to improve since the present NIPOST Management took over. Bolstered by public expectations, the Alhaji Abubakar Musa Argungu led Management has over the past four years taken spedfic measures to restore, public confidence in postal services.
Some of these measures incluce:
Responding effectively to changing maricet requirements and customers' need.
Monitoring and improving the quality of postal products and serv_ces.
Enhanang the quality and motivation of Postal personnel at all level.
Improvement and modernization of "stal structures suit today's business environment.
NIPOST's role in the development of communications is very vital, not only as a means of exchanging information, but also as a way of maintaining and promoting social cohesion. What the present NIPOST Management needs is the encouragement and sawort of both the Government and the people. It has an enviable record of accomplishing whatever target it sets for itself and I believe that with our cooperation and suwort postal customers can look forward to increasingly responsive and reliable postal services which will continue to be the most accessible and affordable means of communication and message delivery avalable.
Odeyinka is a Lagos-based Communications analyst.
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