This is ultimately a somewhat patronising, perhaps slightly silly effort at passing commendation. But I know where I am coming from, and I hope you will find the points to connect with me on the journey.

Tuesday, January 22 2009 as I struggled to stay awake to catch some of the all too historic moments of the Barack Obama inauguration, live on CNN America, little was I aware that there was some bit of action waiting for me at the doorstep too.

Oh well, its probably not as grand as having a first African American president.

Here is the gist; I had been working on a video production, with respect to the Miss Uzoma project being championed by the NVS (www.nigeriavillagesquare.com) (http://tinyurl.com/dy95mz).

Time constrains dictated that I delegate some of the work to a number of colleagues in Nigeria, but they could not upload the finished job toe me, due to Internet bandwidth constrains.

And then, one within our team suggested that the quickest alternative to getting the finished DVDs was to get them in the post ASAP.

Hmmm!  Here is my immediate mental reaction “you are asking to get a “hard-looking, hard-feeling” item posted to you from Nigeria…/How long is that going to take…/Would it be worth the cost of DHL’ing it….”

In one word, that sense of cynicism.

One does not comfortably send a valued piece of item using NIPOST, I thought to myself. If you dare take the risk, someone is going to be a short distance away, willing to remind you of horror experiences from the past.

There was a time in-between the 90’s that our postal system was simply notorious for disappearing parcels, not to mention the general perception of incompetence on many fronts.

It was so bad, I remember, during the Gen. Sani Abacha days of evil, it was rumoured that state security agents was actually deployed with the sole mission of hijacking parcels meant for the United states, randomly destroying them, just so Nigerian applicants for the American Visa Lottery program could be denied any chance…

For someone old enough to have experienced the fun, if archaic days, when the art of letter writing was taught at college, where seeking/finding pen-friends around the globe was a function of listening to BBC Radio shows via Transistor Short-Wave Radio, where there was an uncanny feel of thrill, maybe achievement, at merely holding a piece of item that took weeks or months to travel onto your hand, the role of a nation’s postal service is immense.

It was a system that must functions partly on the basis of mutual trust, and then business tenets.

There is an element of national pride too as the actions or otherwise of a nation’s postal service has a way of reflecting on perception, in the eyes of a foreigner as it concerns international mails & correspondence. Just imagine how central the Royal Mail is, to the whole notion of official business transactions, exchanging gifts and day to day communication in Britain but I am digressing.

So, I bent down to pick the parcel. My immediate mental reaction again: “Iro ni! This is not from Nigeria… Seyi (the sender) didn’t inform me she posted it without insurance (we call it Registered mail), she hasn’t asked me for the thousands of Naira that will be needed to DHL it...”

Again, that cynicism!  This time around though, inverted.

The sense of impossibility  that rushes into your brain, in torrents, but powerful enough in quantity, to kill the best of optimism, as recently exemplified as  one watched a tiny-shaped, certainly dark skinned Barrack Obama, standing in the midst of seeming losers of a crowd, daring to ask “make-me-president, America” just over two years ago.

Turns out, America proves reckless cynicism wrong. Just as much as the brown envelope reminded me of the possibility, that is buried deep within; the everyday Nigerian soul.

Therefore, here is to all the staff, senior and low, of the Nigerian Postal Service; Thank you! For my parcel was postmarked 14th January and at the price tag of N120, delivered in one piece 6000miles away in just over a week. Fabulous! It was one post that made me re-examine the status of my preconceived, if helpless notion about the totality of the Nigerian project.

In addition, I have got nothing but commendations for the measured professionalism that oozes out of NIPOST’s website http://www.nipost.gov.ng/.

It is terrific! -to put it as football commentators are quick to declare when in awe of an awesome goal - to visit a Nigerian public establishment on the world wide web without being greeted with an oversized, and terribly misplaced photograph of the ‘Ambassador’ or officer in charge; Time which you have lost your original concentration so much as to as to need to hyper-crack your brain, re-focusing at the information you were seeking initially.

However, the online post-code checker has been disabled for sometime, a very long time now. I remember the post-code system was introduced to the nation with so much fanfare and one suspects, at so much cost not too long ago.

The promise to Nigerians as it were, was even more efficient mail sorting & delivery capabilities from NIPOST. The website remains a vantage point of keeping such lofty modern postal services feature alive. NIPOST should activate it with immediate dispatch.  

For one thing, many Nigerians are almost oblivious to the actual existence of the post-code system in Nigeria.

One final shot. I find it apt to pay a citizen tribute to the memories of Alhaji Abubakar Musa Argungu – Nigeria’s late Postmaster General. 

I recollect reading his centre-page The Guardian interview with much cynicism, during the unholy days of emperor Obasanjo’s premiership. The man, whom I have come to respect, simply on account of the clarity of his intentions in the said interview had promised to revamp NIPOST’s operational level from near zero performance index; You have got to vividly see through his commitment, and sense of mission, at the time merely reading him.

He promised a nationwide ‘deliver-in-72hours’ target for mails within Nigeria and I tell you what, it happened! A Nigerian high rank official promising society and actually making it work? At the time, it was rare.

While it is even more exciting to conjecture Mr. Argungu’s reforms must have been so deep-reaching as to be institutionalised – the reason I got the post, in effect, the reason I am sending this post - one suffers a bit of disturbing agony, the recollection of losing such a reformatory success to one of those our , dare I say, ‘mostly-self-created’ but terribly unfortunate plane crashes. It must be a living pain, for his family, in fact, anyone at all, to have to remember such a tragedy alongside deep memories of a loved one. But I console them, that someone recognises value of some of his humble efforts, in the ultimate service of society…

But the thoughts of just how much success purposeful leadership could effect, in the transformation of NIPOST convinces me, even if in advance, just how much transformation Nigeria could experience if and when we finally found the capacity to step onto the Barrack Obama-ic vista at the level of our politics. To quote Sonala Olumehnse in one of his, “still I dream”. In the meantime, NIPOST surely delivered the post…right on target. And it was fast safe and secured.

It may be sometime before I patronise the courier services...

‘Dapo Osewa.

aosewa@gmail.com

Robot  # 1 | 30.01.2009 01:20

This is ultimately a somewhat patronising, perhaps slightly silly effort at passing commendation. But I know where I am coming from, and I hope you will find the points to connect with me on the journey. Tuesday, January 22 2009 as I struggled to stay awake to catch some of the all too historic moments of the Barack Obama inauguration, live on CNN America, little was I aware that there was some bit of action waiting for me at the doorstep too. Oh well, its probably not as grand as having a first African American president. Here is the gist; I had been working on a video production, with respect to the Miss Uzoma project being championed by the NVS (www.nigeriavillagesquare.com) (http://tinyurl.com/dy95mz). Time constrains d...Read the full article.

Ochi Dabari  # 2 | 30.01.2009 01:40

You will generally get things sent from Nigeria, and on time too. It is getting things by post into Nigeria that is a nightmare, at least since Mallam Argungu died. It is still very risky sending things to Nigeria by ordinary post. If you use EMS, it seems to work but ordinary post simply does not work, particularly if the letter looks bulky or looks like one containing pounds and dollars! You cannot even register postal items to Nigeria from most countries as the postal systems in many countries are not ready to take the risk of explaining how a registered postal item disappeared after arriving in Nigeria. At least where I am, the post office does not accept registered items to Nigeria - Nigeria is among the countries not listed on their system! Last year, I sent family DVDs, photos and a few minor things to my brother in Nigeria - they never arrived. Not even including his military rank helped. ochi

Marin  # 3 | 30.01.2009 04:30

Well, we just sent a document to a relative in Nigeria a few days before christmas. I would have sent it by DHL because of my prejudice against NIPOST, but it was my husband that went to the post office. He sent it by normal post.......and it arrived safely at my relatives house a week later, no problems like the one we had with DHL a few months ago where the parcel was not delivered in time, and nobody informed us.

lumidii  # 4 | 30.01.2009 13:30

I can attest to an improvement in the services of NIPOST. I have received so many documents in the past couple of months, and they've all been sent via NIPOST. The last one i received took only three days to arrive, it was posted from the Marina Head office on a tuesday- and i received it the friday after. I have also toyed with sending non-valuable documents to Nigeria using them - all have been to Post offfice boxes though, and none has grown wings so far. I hope they keep it up.

datuouwadaberechi  # 5 | 30.01.2009 14:36

this is really cheery news. i have also had similar experiences recently with NIPOST. may God be praised.

ifeolooni  # 6 | 31.01.2009 08:19

this is one of the tiny successes of obj which our incapacitated sicktard in chief is bent on distroying nafdac is in line as well. and about abati land issue it is time to have a clock on the front page counting since when the news broke till the day he responds this is a market place of ideas it is my idea and it is time we have ability to write diaries and vote on articles which should be on the homepage enough of the dumbing down of this website

Ph3y  # 7 | 31.01.2009 11:34

=ifeolooni;319960>this is one of the tiny successes of obj which our incapacitated sicktard in chief is bent on distroying nafdac is in line as well. and about abati land issue it is time to have a clock on the front page counting since when the news broke till the day he responds this is a market place of ideas it is my idea and it is time we have ability to write diaries and vote on articles which should be on the homepage enough of the dumbing down of this website The highlighted does not fit into this thread.....So while you are trying to avert dumbing down this website, make sure you post relevant info on appropriate threads:D Yes Nipost has improved......My letters are brought to my door step.......