To spoil a ship for a ha’porth of tar is an English idiomatic expression that talks about destroying something big by not spending small amount to maintain it. That typifies the lifestyle of average Nigerian. We simply lack maintenance culture. We buy a car but fail to adhere to the manual’s instructions for regular and periodic maintenance. Check out some car tyres, windscreen, wipers, car doors and you’ll be shocked at how a car that is not up to five years old has become jalopy. We build houses and lackadaisical attitude to maintenance makes the house become dilapidated in next to no time. The door handles, the plumbing, the fittings, the electrical appliances, the tiles, the water closet, the water tanks, the furniture, all become dysfunctional or spoilt due to owner’s indifference to proper maintenance.
Similarly, many hotels that look beautiful on the outside are shitholes when you lodged inside them. It’s either the water heater is not working or the air conditioner is not or some taps are leaking or the towels and bed spreads are dirty. Some hotels have never changed their blankets and duvets since inception neither are they regularly dry-cleaned. Sometimes the room stinks. I have also been to many public buildings, government secretariats, where the elevators have broken down and visitors have to climb the staircase to get to the floors they needed to take elevators to reach. This is because the elevators have broken down because of lack of proper maintenance. Many toilets in government offices are eyesore. It’s either there is no water to flush or the water closet lever is dysfunctional. The furniture in many government and public offices are wobbling. Workers share offices with rodents and roaches because they are never fumigated.
Check out the state of our roads and bridges. Be they federal, state or local government roads. They have become infested with graters and gullies and have become death traps due to lack of proper maintenance. Bandits and kidnappers take advantage of these bad roads to carry out their nefarious activities as vehicles plying such bad roads have to slow down at these bad spots. Last month, the Federal Ministry of Works shut down the Independence Bridge along Ahmadu Bello Way, Marina-bound on Victoria Island, Lagos. The Federal Controller of Works, Lagos, Olukorede Kesha, says the closure was to facilitate essential maintenance and rehabilitation works on the bridge from Wednesday, March 19th, to May 31st, 2025. News report has it that the bridge closure brought about untold hardship on commuters plying the area. In fact, many motorists spend the entire night of the first day of the bridge closure on the road due to the gridlock. Meanwhile it was discovered that one of the pillars holding the bridge is just floating as the soil holding it has been eroded by water. Lack of periodic maintenance did not allow the Ministry Officials to notice this early enough.
While pipeline vandalism is one of the menace being faced by the Nigerian government. However, some of the oil and water pipes have corroded and leaking due to lack of periodic maintenance. Imagine that some oil pipelines laid since early sixties that are to be replaced every 10 years are left unchanged and after a while begin to leak and thereby degrading the soil and the environment. Similarly, lack of routine turn around maintenance of our four oil refineries in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna led to Nigeria’s over dependent on importation of refined petroleum products. Did you know what economic loss this has inflicted on Nigeria? We lost jobs, businesses, foreign exchange and prestige. The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari have to borrow $1.5bn reportedly from a Chinese bank to carry out the TAM on Port Harcourt and Warri refineries. Despite that, after several failed deadlines, NNPCL informed Nigerians in December 2024 that these two refineries have been restreamed to commence operation but not at full capacity. Nonetheless, it is the privately owned Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical that has come to the rescue of Nigerians as production from government owned Port Harcourt and Warri are inadequate for our domestic consumption need.
Lack of or inadequate and timely maintenance is always costly. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. If all and sundry embrace proper maintenance culture, the lifespan of our objects will be longer. We will even spend less. Given the fact that the cost of goods and services are skyrocketing, a prompt maintenance culture will ensure that we spend less today to prevent spending more tomorrow. Imagine how much we are having to spend on the maintenance of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway? Am sure the amount is far more than what was spent to build the road in the first place. It is lack of proper maintenance of our national assets like the Nigerian Airways, Nigeria Railway Corporation, Nigeria National Shipping Line, Nigeria Telecommunications better known as NITEL that led to the death of these government owned enterprises. Thankfully, federal government have deemed it fit to revitalize the Nigeria Railway Corporation. It is heartwarming that train services have been restored in South West Nigeria from Lagos to Ibadan, Abuja Municipality and Abuja to Kaduna to mention a few.
Maintenance culture is not all about items or objects. What about our body as human beings? How many of us go for routine medical checkups? How many of us even go to hospitals when sick? Many prefer self-medication. Some goes to quacks and unlicensed medicine stores for medications. This lack of proper maintenance of our bodies through routine medical checks, health living, exercising, dieting, relaxation and sleeping adequately are major causes of terminal sicknesses and untimely deaths.
X:@jideojong
