From
time immemorial, postal service has that uniqueness of chequered history,
accommodates certain peculiarities but still upholds its universality in the
fact that humans, wherever they are, can be brought together through the Post
or the postal system.
It
is most heartening how the great thinkers of old, philosophers and great
historians have said of what the Post represents in the life of humankind.
Voltaire
has rightly positioned the Post as, “The link connecting all affairs, all
negotiations, by its means absent becomes present”. Such a thinker, a great
mind whose philosophical writings was equally instrumental to the French
revolution and others afterwards, could not have made such submission if the
postal service meant nothing in something.
But
for something good in everything, the presence of postal service means nothing
good for man will be absent in the life of man so far the Post remains existing
and endearing.
While
geographers pride in their dictum, “Everything in space is a geographical
phenomenon”, those in the employ of postal service take it a fundamental human
right of global citizens that no matter what distances that separate peoples in
their locations all over the world, postal services in varying degrees must
reach them.
Why?
Because postal service to Stanley Philips, “ The Post is that means of
communication by which messages of joy or otherwise pass from one end of the
world to the other, utilizing every known means of transport, often in
circumstances of adventurous difficulty.”
The
Post therefore has functional role to play as a system, structure and
institution if its major role is to abridge peoples in places and the distances
that separate them.
What
then makes the Post unique in Nigeria and of what importance is it to its
universality? In its remote and very rudimentary manner the Post in Nigeria
started in 1852 in Lagos when an agreement was reached by Her Royal Majesty the
Queen of England and Macgregor Liard of the African Merchant a trading company
then crisscrossing between Britain and the West African Coast.
A
fallout from the efforts of the anti-slavery squadron aimed at stopping and
replacing slave trade with the legitimate trade, the economic, and political
and the administrative indices inherent in colonialism of that time resulted in
the Post Office in Lagos being made an annex of the British Post Office as far
back as 1861.
The
Post in Nigeria is a product of economic necessity, colonial administration and
post-colonial inclination to make the amalgamation of the Post coincides with
the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates that later formed
what is called and named Nigeria on 1st January 1914.
By
1960 when the Post and Telegraph was made a full fledge Department of Post and
Telecommunications (P&T),1985 when the Post was divorced from the
Telecommunications and thus became the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST, till
date, more focus and government efforts have been more towards the viability of
anything telecoms than postal in Nigeria.
There
is the general peculiarity of tilt and policy thrust of government towards the
superiority/ inferiority complexes that make complex rather than simplify
capital funding of the Post as a national infrastructure almost up to the stage
of total neglect and unconcern.
Sometimes
when slight hope is raised that something good is in the offing, equally comes
the ever twisting overbearing Nigerian factor of situations beyond the control
of postal industry in Nigeria.
How
does one explain the bad roads and its wear and tear on limited and dwindling
fleet of vehicles whereas it is a truism the parlance in the Post that, “No
mail moves faster than the transportation mode by which it is transported”, the
unexpected flights cancellation, the insecurity to lives and properties on the
roads thus preventing night movements, the hazard associated with moving mail
items in warring communities and other unforeseen circumstances?
Delivery
of mail items is the main last mile function of the Post worldwide, but when
addressees are not be easily identifiable, numbering and naming of streets in
densely populated unplanned areas and general inaccessibility to homes guarded
by fire spitting dogs and lion infested compounds, the postman though human yet
must make spirited efforts to deliver but with unexpected delays.
National
addressing though a sinequanon but a function of plethora of government
agencies and top functionaries of government.
The
era of Internet Communication Technology (ICT) and varying range of computer
technology is here with us all as global citizens. In content and
context, the conservative human elements must move with the new trends and
vogues while the younger and modern-day folks find it difficult to tolerate the
slow pace at which the Post in Nigeria seems adapting to adopt the
unconventional with the age long conventional means of localising the global
thinking.
The
Post in the thinking of Herodotus, a Greek historian who looked closely at the
human element, the Postman in the postal system and those so resilient and thus
are described as, “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays
these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”.
As
the peculiarities of the Post further challenges the now and future existence
of the Nigerian Post, as the personalities permutate policies with politics so
shall it ever be that the post remains unique and universal now and as present
continuous.
Taiye
Olaniyi is the Public Relations Manager, Nigerian Postal Service
Source://www.dailytrust.com.ng/
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