Every now and then you hear people lament, “We don’t have maintenance culture in Nigeria,” where roads and government offices are concerned.
But they conveniently forget that this lack of maintenance culture is also in our houses and, maybe that is why it is a ‘cultural’ thing. As in since we don’t do it in our houses, we should not be expected to do it even in government. What a sad testimony of neglect and waste.
At homes you see a sign of deterioration even in mundane things like broken door handles, broken toilet seat covers, spoilt door hinges that the door has to be heaved to open and close. And you wonder why some of these things can be observed even in wealthy houses and the money to repair such things are not a problem.
One woman complained that her husband built a big beautiful house, but that is the end. Anything that spoils or breaks, even a leaking roof he would not repair. He only did it when it reached a stage where it just had to be done, and by then it would become a huge work.
In any case some attribute this lack of maintenance to big houses that have ten or more rooms with many living rooms and kitchens.
Some houses have living rooms almost as large as dining halls in boarding schools, and the ceiling is so high that even using an ordinary ladder would not be sufficient to clean it.
“You will need a cleaning company to clean this house from time to time,” I said to a friend when they moved into such a house equipped with a garden, swimming pool and children’s play ground as well.
But the point is that many don’t actually engage industrial cleaners, even though it is beyond a house girl or a house boy. The house is industrial size and it needs industrial cleaners to be maintained.
Not realising the enormity of maintaining such a house, many are not ready to hire professional cleaners, which would not come cheaply.
I recall a story by one newspaper of a beautiful unoccupied house in Abuja high brow area. The house is far from ordinary mansions. It is more like a castle. The paper tried to find out about the owner but it hit a brick wall. It however found that maintaining the house to its pristine condition cost four million naira a year. And that was about ten years ago!
Years ago somebody told me that he wanted to have a small house that he would be able to maintain. He said there was a very big house that was crumbling in his town. The owner had since died and his children lived elsewhere.
“None of them want to live in the house. The expense is a lot and they are not rich. So the house is abandoned,” he said.
While discussing very big houses a friend said, “May be they copied them from India,” probably houses like in Indian films in the Zee World.
But then living in small houses does not mean that the houses would be maintained. It depends on individuals.
While it is not an excuse for us not to maintain our houses, it is more worrisome if we don’t maintain government property because there are departments or units in charge of that.
You see government staff houses in schools or elsewhere in very bad condition. The government is supposed to take care of the houses and even renovate them periodically. But they gradually become dilapidated with almost everywhere in need of repair or our right change.
Some of the occupants may try to do one or two things but generally the condition of the houses is poor, to put it mildly.
Since the houses belong to the government, why is it that the government would not look after its assets? The excuse would probably be lack of funds apart from the general lack of maintenance culture, that even if the funds were available there would be no commitment to take care of the houses.
Corruption is also a factor that should not be ignored.
In one tertiary hospital water was permanently running in one tap in the toilet and this was ‘normal.’ And you wonder where the maintenance people are. There are cleaners, supervisors and on and on. There are even work departments in some places.
Therefore this is a problem that is everywhere with us and we should be up and doing to maintain what needs to be maintained and do away with the culture of lack of maintenance.
