Infrastructural development is the bedrock of any meaningful development effort in the world today. It is important to stress that, it is not enough for facilities of development to be put in place by government or individuals; it is more than enough for these facilities to be adequately and properly maintained so that the purpose for which they are meant would be accomplished.

However, due to the errenous notion in this part of the world that government property does not belong to anybody, facilities that are meant to benefit the masses are abandoned to rot away, wasting away without being put to any good use as people are not interested in making such facilities sustainable. The result therefore, is that public facilities do not last long due to lack of maintenance.

The governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki while on an inspection tour of Government Science Technical College (GSTC) Ugbowo, noted the same concern as reported by The Nigerian Observer, ” maintenance is a major concern for us; it is a cultural thing that we need to change and inculcate in the managers of government assets and businesses, maintenance has not been the culture of governments and it is a part of our weakness”.

But this ugly trend is likely to become a thing of the past in Edo state as the Governor has set up Edo Public building and Maintenance Agency to “ensure that the maintenance of projects undertaken by the government is guaranteed”.

Beyond the maintenance of public infrastructure by the agency which the governor has created, he is also shifting a paradigm inview of public projects and reawakening a maintenance culture of public infrastructure.

By creating this agency, it is crystal clear that much emphasis is given to protection and maintenance of projects undertaken by the government as part of the transformation exercise currently going on by the Obaseki’s administration.

Some experts are of the opinion that achieving vision 2020 goals would have been attainable if not for the lackadaisical attitude of Nigerians on maintenance culture which has negatively affected infrastructural development. While this is arguable because of other ills in our system such as corruption, we can agree to a very large extent that poor maintenance culture is a bane on infrastructural development in Nigeria.

Poor maintenance culture has drawn the nation a thousand steps backward and one of the stride actions that could salvage the country from the total mess of infrastructural decay is maintenance. This is a bold and commendable step that the Governor has taken.

Governor Obaseki has institutionalized maintenance culture in public infrastructures by creating the agency. This means that preservation of the quality of public infrastructures and assets for future generations is set on motion.

While addressing the problem of infrastructural decays, the agency has so far created employment by training maintenance officers and managers thereby killing two birds with one stone. According to the Governor, ” we are also looking at exchange programmes; bringing retired teachers to come and support our technical training system here”

It is expected that future administrations will build on this great utilitarian legacy of the Governor and sustain the maintenance culture that Obaseki has institutionalized.

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Sinafi Omanga is a serving Corps member with the Nigerian Observer, Benin City Edo State.
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