With the advent of social media where almost all manners of communications are being done, one wonders what has become of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST). In this special report, LEVINUS NWABUGHIOGU and EMMA ELEBEKE of Saturday Vanguard spoke with Taiye Olaniyi of NIPOST.

The situation before now

A chat with Mr. Taiye Olaniyi, the Public Relations Manager at NIPOST Headquarters in Abuja on the level  of patronage by Nigerians and other foreign nationals indicates a statistical difference from what used to be the case in the yesteryears.

For instance, volumes of mail bags were elevated to over 500,000. But that is no more the case now.

Hear Olaniyi: “Definitely, the volume of our mail packages has drooped. We used to record over 500,000 mail bags, even here in Nigeria but in recent times, we can’t boast of that. But there are different categories of mail items. We have the ordinary letter, which has dropped drastically worldwide due to the invention of computer and information technology devices. In that area, there is a drastic drop, which could almost 50 per cent of what we used to record”.

How long it takes to deliver a parcel

Though mail delivery services does not record sumptuous patronage, Olaniyi still believes that mails routed to different destinations via NIPOST are still being delivered but it may take an interval of 24, 48 to 72 hours depending on the final destinations. He also cited some inhibitions such as dilapidated roads infrastructures, saying it impedes quick delivery of physical mails.

He said: “It all depends because, when you come to physical delivery of items, it can’t be done through the GSM and stuff like that. The GSM can complement it for people to communicate from one point to another, but when it comes to physical delivery of all these items, they cannot do that and we have our own targets; maybe 72 hours from one part of a  village in a state to another village in another state. If its within a particular city, it should be around 24 hours but between one state capital and another state capital, we are talking about 48 hours.

“And because in year 2000 and years after, we were able to meet that target very well up to 80 per cent,  on the bases of that we were asked to bring the delivery time to about 48 hours. But you found out that mail delivery is more and we are aware that things are not getting better in terms of road connection and everybody in Nigeria knows today that the percentage of roads that are deplorable in the country is much.

Almost 70 per cent of our mail items are carried on Nigerian roads. Automatically, even where you want some of these things delivered on target, there are some other factors that affect the speed of the delivery”.

Redundancy of NIPOST workers

Mr. Olaniyi would not agree that the drop in patronage will ever make the workers redundant just as he does not envisage the scrapping of the parastatal even in the future, saying NIPOST has a unique function it performs.

“It shouldn’t  necessarily be. When we are looking at the NIPOST, we are looking at it from the social function, economic function, administrative function and from the international function. And in all these, Nigeria is still making sure that the rights of people all over the world are protected in line with the universal  obligation of the Post.

“We are to meet that particular obligation, that is why they have to pay N5 for a mail from far away Port Harcourt to Maiduguri because if you are looking at it purely from economic perspective, it will not be cost-effective for us to do that but we have to make that sacrifice in order to fulfill that social obligation.

“You also have to realize that  at the international level, even though we have external affairs ministry and others, the activities of the Post affects our image more”, he explained

On probable scrapping of NIPOST

“That is not possible. We are parts and parcel of the interaction with the Presidential committee that was established to harmonize and merge some of the affected parastatals. The Post is very unique worldwide, so it can never affect us.

The only aspect is if we have been enjoying a monopolistic  paraphernalia, we can now begin introducing business attitude, which we are doing. Worldwide now, the in-thing is a commercial orientation about the whole processes of the Post”, he said.

Measures to reposition NIPOST

“So many things. There are three aspects of the POST: the aspect of physical delivery, social services and the international relations and marketing capabilities of the POST. Government through some of the agencies, are realizing the need to incorporate us into financial inclusion.

“More of these ICT portals will be accommodated to assist in our interaction and financial services and other areas”.

The situation now

Whether or not NIPOST has plans in the offing to reposition its structures for effective service delivery, analysts believe that it may take more than a passing effort to meet up in the advent of internet and other online communication services. This they opined need to be done urgently otherwise, they feared that NIPOST might go the way of Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL).