Nigerians react to whether or not the advent of social media has rendered Nigeria Postal Services, NIPOST redundant. By EBUN SESSOU & FLORENCE AMAGIYA.
Before the advent of social media, the likes of facebook, tweeter, linkedin, badoo among others, sending letters, parcels, documents were done through NIPOST . However, in the past 10 years, with the advent of internet and social media platforms, has the use of NIPOST service increase or declined? Here are what Nigerians say:
Pastor Segun Adegbiji in his opinion said, “there is no doubt that the internet has developed. I visited a site and I discovered that 2.4billion people already have access to the internet. Even in advanced countries where the level of patronage of the internet and online is higher than in Nigeria, there are still postal services.
Despite this, the postal services are aware of the enormous challenges facing them. Although there is prompt delivery of your documents which cannot be sent online. For instance, in United Kingdom, you can be sure of getting your documents within the expected time. There is faithfulness on the part of the postal services. So the internet is not supposed to replace the postal services but to complement it. Despite the fact the internet is faster, there are lots of limitations.
Using the social media, there is intimacy and the speed of sending messages is there. In developed countries, news break on tweeter. Anyone who gets stories on tweeter is sure of getting the story across to thousands at a time with 140 characters.
Asked on how he would advise government to make NIPOST relevant, he said, “They should preach and practice excellence. People should be able to get service delivery within the expected time. Social media is not supposed to replace NIPOST.
Asked when last he posted a letter, he said, “It has been a while although have been out of the country. But if I would post a letter, I would rather make use of the private courier companies so that I can really tell when my document would be delivered. There is limit to the amount of documents that can be sent online.
There are certain things we cannot attach and that is an opportunities for NIPOST to explore. Just as the courier services, NIPOST should take advantage of the weaknesses of the social media and deliver excellence service. We should not advocate for NIPOST to be closed down.
For Peter Ogudoro, Public Relations Analyst, NIPOST is indispensable for the fact that it is a postal agency in the developing countries.
He argued that, “those accessing internet service are not up to 10 percent. For 100 people who have need to engage correspondent with other people, there is for postal service. There is no reason why we wouldn’t need NIPOST because of the quality of the internet service we have in Nigeria. Most people use 3G platform whereas the world has gone to a minimum of 4G.
“Certainly what we cannot do without in Nigeria at the moment is the NIPOST. Most of the people in rural community only rely on letters. Young people who write WAEC, NECO, JAMB examinations use the postal service platform to get their results.
Those who live abroad also depend solely on postal service to get letters to their people in the rural settings. Average Nigerian living in Lagos still does not have access to internet facility. It is shocking to hear that NIPOST has become irrelevant. The capital market cannot function effectively without the services coming from NIPOST.
“Most of the shareholders get their dividend warrants, bonuses through NIPOST. In the face of all these, what we can do is to compel them to improve on service delivery rather than wondering whether it is still relevant or not.
“But, it needs to be improved upon in terms of reliability. There are cases of correspondent getting lost in transit. There are so many delays because there is no speed. For the private courier service, it is strictly business because people invest money into it for excellent service delivery.
“But NIPOST charges N50 for service delivery. And if we think NIPOST should improve in terms of speed, we should also be willing to accept increase in tariff.
“Certainly, the job that has to be done by NIPOST is still what it is right now. We were under 50million when we got independent but now, we are a population of over 170million people. That is not a population that the social media can attend to adequately especially when we recognise that this is not an empowered population.
“Many people are poor. The ration of people that can effectively operate computer is very 5 percent. Those who have access to internet do not get enough internet services because of financial constraint. I believe we are celebrating too early to think that we have arrived or compare ourselves to Britain, Canada or Germany.
“The reality we know is that NIPOST is not able to cope with the quantum of letters and that is why many people are patronising private courier agencies to handle mail delivery. NIPOST has not been displaced. Nobody is contemplating scraping NIPOST because what it does is what no other organisation is able to deliver. Internet is not able to deliver University certificate both within and outside the country.
“I am saying this because of the peculiarity of the challenges we have here, we don’t have adequate electricity. Most of our people are poor. They can’t afford monthly internet service. To have reasonable internet service, one needs to spend about 10,000 per month. While the minimum wage in Nigeria is just 18,000.
“Therefore it is a fact that NIPOST will not become irrelevant even in the next ten years.
For me, I post letters as often as I have clients who have needs to get original copies of the kind of services that we deliver. As an individual who has affiliation with people within and outside the country and professionals, I get my journals through NIPOST and send to my client through NIPOST”, he said.
An anonymous respondent also opined that, “Before we compare the to systems that is the social media and the postal system, one must examine the functions of both.
“The social media is for communication purposes to build networks, develop relationships that are through the computer systems in a written format, while the postal system apart from the fact that it can be used as a tool for communication, it is also used in the delivery of packages, courier of physical or confidential things that cannot be handled through social media.
The only basis by which which we can compare the social media and the postal system is on the platform of their similar functions. It is obvious that the postal system is no longer effective as a tool for communication when compared to social media.
“The social media including tweeter, facebook, linkedin, badoo, among others are faster ways of getting information across to heterogeneous audience. But, that cannot be achieved through the postal system. The social media is cheaper.
“And when comparing the Nigerian Postal System to privately owned courier service, one must also know that Nigerian attitude to what belongs to government has significantly affected the performance of any government owned parastatal in the country. People don’t take personal responsibility or accountability for their work. Consider the lackadaisical attitude of civil servants. The postal system cannot run by itself.
“Other problems might be lack of right tools, poor remuneration, infrastructure which have contributed to its ineffectiveness. People prefer to patronise the privately owned courier services even though it is more expensive because they know they must get value for their money. Another problem is the street numbering system which is a major challenge that needs to be restructured.
“I think Nigeria Postal System needs a change in mindset of the staff. There is need to identify the problem before proffering solutions.
“I have not posted a letter in years, rather I send emails or text messages to my friends as a means of communication. With the technology, we have now, the postal service as a means of communication has been rendered redundant. It is only those living in the village that rely more on the postal system. But, if I would send parcels at all, I rather use the private courier”, she added.
For Mr. Alozie Eugene, Banker, Rtd, “Posting letters through the Post Agency has never been my style in the past; coupled with the fact that at the bank where l once worked and retired from had ways of posting letters or posting money without help from the regular postal Services.
“There are times the banks had to send ‘hand delivery packages’ to people which is very important, but the banks have always known what to do in situations like that. And that was before the inception of the social media viz: Internet- via the email, facebook, twitter, yahoo messenger and others cropping up each day.
“The gradual grounding down of the Postal Service in Nigeria is killing the new generation youths in the aspect of their education; when it comes to writing of letters. The average youth is mostly found chatting away with what they call ‘short hand writing’ via the internet and text messages. At the end of the day; they cannot write any meaningful letter because they never practiced in the first place.
“Today, we have mass failure in examinations and examination malpractices. It is not that the new trend of posting letters are bad, but we shouldn’t allow the new to spoil the old; which is good enough. Meanwhile, we all know that the social media or emails cannot deliver hardware gadgets also”, he stated.
A make-up artist, Mary Jane, said, “I remembered using the Post Office in 1999; and that was during my WAEC examination. These days l make use of the electronic media or you would call it the internet. Students use the internet to register WAEC, JAMB and to access their results. Children born from the late 1990s may have not have any knowledge of how NIPOST operates.
“I have a facebook account, l have a blackberry, hence l ping with it. The Postal Agency or Post Office is going out of fashion because they are not reliable. I don’t think the postal agencies should be scraped by the government though but I think it should be privatized so that it would come back to life”, she noted.
Kunle Ola, Information Technologist opines, “l cannot remember using the Post Office but l can remember that my WAEC result was sent via the Post Office 15 years ago. I make use of my electronic gadgets, l make calls with my phone and send text messages.But if the truth is to be told, l would suggest that we do something about the dilapidated state of our post offices because not everything can be sent via the internet. I returned from United Kingdom just recently and they still make use of their Post Office”, he said.
Mrs. Enomen Omoriagbe Arinze, Business woman said, “I haven’t used the post office in my whole life, but l have made used of DHL. These days, l use my phone to call my friends, family and loved ones all over the world; I send text messages with my phone also. I use the internet to access my facebook page, my email, my twitter account and all that. I would be selfish to wish that that NIPOST should be scraped because people living in the villages may not have access to the internet, hence they would need the postal agency” said she.
Musibau Akanni, a trader stopped making use of the post office in 2001; “I think that was the same year GSM and internet services were introduced into Nigerian market. These days ,l make use of my phones, my facebook page and emails to get messages sent and it is very reliable. I don’t think it is a good thing if the postal agencies are scraped because we have hardware and other stuff to send and we cannot do that via the internet or the phone. I am a business man and I import goods like phones from Europe. If l do not travel myself, then l would need the postal agency to deliver my goods right at my door step,” he responded.
Amaka Ikemefuna, a teacher cannot remember sending a letter through the post office since the inception of the internet and social media. “These days, l talk to family and friends via facebook, emails and l send text messages.
“But 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 lamented.
Mercy Bassey, a Writer, made visited the post office 13 years ago; “these days the average Nigerian make 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”, she frowned.
