IMPLICATION OF POOR MAINTENANCE CULTURE AND ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA PUBLIC SECTOR (EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Maintenance culture in this study suggests the habit of regularly and consistently keeping a building, machine, facilities, equipment, infrastructures etc in good and working condition. In support of this assertion, SuwaibatulIslamiah, Abdul-Hakim, Syazwina, &Eizzatul (2012) posited that maintenance culture is the values, way of thinking, behaviour, perception and the underlying assumptions of any person or group or society that considers maintenance as a matter that is important and practices it in their life. If a nation must develop, it is imperative that installation as well as maintenance of its existing facilities be given priority. This is more so for developing nations like Nigeria where there is a huge gap between the supply and demand for such facilities due to high rate of population growth and other factors (Dabara, Ankeli, Guyimu, Oladimeji, &Oyediran, 2015). Nigerian government, according to Eti, Ogoji, & Probert (2006), took certain economic steps towards being among the best twenty economies in the world by the year 2020. Attaining sustainable infrastructural development by successive governments and cultivation and practicing maintenance culture are essential in achieving this vision. Infrastructure facilities generally referred to as economic and social overhead capital which includes education, water supply, sewage systems, and energy. Others are postal and telecommunication services, transport system, hospitals and roads (World bank, 1994; Oluwasegun, Okorie, Dabara, &Abdulazeez, 2013; Dabara, Lawal, Adebowale, Ankeli, &Gambo, 2016). Governments (Federal, State and Local), private organizations and individuals need to have a strategy on how to maintain their infrastructural facilities to ensure sustainability of same. This can be achieved through maintenance culture which is said to have a correlation with national development. It is common knowledge that the deplorable state of public facilities in Nigeria poses great concern to stakeholders. Facilities at Nigeria’s airports, hospitals, schools, roads etc would give indication that the society lacks an agent that would have helped manage, ensure effective and efficient functioning of the facilities as well as fostering national development. Nahimah (2008), while working on the state of Nigerian Aviation Industry, opined that the flaws in the Nigerian Aviation sector was attributed to lack of maintenance culture and the training of professional engineers.
