The recent appointment of Dr Ismail Adebayo Adewusi as the Post Master General CEO of NIPOST by President Muhammadu Buhari has no doubt, put the Nigerian Postal Service on the limelight once again. Many Nigerians are beginning to ask the reason why NIPOST is constantly getting the attention of the President. According to them, since we are now in a digital era, the agency is supposed to be moribund. In their estimation, since Internet & Communication Technology (ICT) has rendered the Post inconsequential; it is a waste of time for government to pay much attention to the agency. So, in piloting the affairs of NIPOST, Dr Adewusi needs to present counter narrative to erase the unenthusiastic view of many Nigerians about the importance of NIPOST, and properly situate it through action, going forward.
Only a couple of months ago, the parent ministry to NIPOST rebranded to Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy. At the rebranding ceremony, President Muhammadu Buhari, personally superintended the occasion; thereby driving home the value placed in digitalizing the economy by the current administration. It is therefore safe, to conclude that government sees digitalization and NIPOST walking in the same direction, rather than the Post giving way for digitalization. In orther words, the Post is more relevant today than before.
Although, digital economy is misconstrued in some quarters to mean “Internet Driven Economy”; this viewpoint is erroneous if not misleading. Internet and Communications Technology (ICT) is just real time communication module that must be complemented by real time Transportation and critical infrastructure that enhances commerce and distribution in the country. The combination of these components gives meaning to Digital Economy. According to report, 2/3 of the wealth of Jeff Bezos, the words richest man, is attributed to amazon’s interaction with US Postal Service. Many people place order on amazon via internet, but the goods they ordered for, are transported to them. Again, the world’s most famous online supermarket, Alibaba, makes use of Postal Services around the globe to distribute goods to costumers. Similarly, most online supermarkets in Nigeria make use of NIPOST infrastructure to reach their costumers in the country.
If this writer may ask, has any Nigerian bothered to ask those companies involved in pyramid marking, why they don’t have offices in the nooks and crannies of Nigeria? The obvious answer is, they don’t have the huge capital required to setup offices throughout Nigeria. Nigerians can see clearly here that for digital economy to have meaning, NIPOST must drive it. There is no way digital economy can drive itself.
Leading economies in the world, without exception, have functional Postal Services. This, perhaps, made the immediate former PMG of NIPOST, Barrister Bisi Adegbuyi to say thus: “there is nexus between advance economy and Postal Service”. For instance, USA, Britain, France, Italy, China, Japan, Germany and Netherlands just to mention but few, have functional and effective Postal Service. Their respective economies are also digitally operated.
This writer had previously urged the federal government to leverage on NIPOST spread to drive its Social Intervention Programmes(SIPs), in my article. Although, the extent to which government adhered to my suggestion cannot be determined here but suffice to say that the progress made by NIPOST in the area of collaboration with other agencies of government in deepening economic activities, has been encouraging. It is expected that Dr Adewusi will take this to even higher level. Now that NIRSAL Microfinance Bank is operational in NIPOST offices across Nigeria, driving the social investment programmes of the government should be very easy.
All that is needed now is for Dr Adewusi-led NIPOST and Sadiya Umar Farouq-led Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to work out modalities on how the SIP programmes can be dispensed to achieve even further spread in the country; taking advantage of NIPOST offices throughout the seven hundred and seventy four (774) local government areas in Nigeria. Deploying NIPOST to drive the government SIPs, is one sure way of effectively activating and lubricating digital economy which government places high premium on. It is a well known fact that the real driver of a given economy is micro-economic activity. Fortunately, Dr Adewusi, is an accomplished economist who has been tested and trusted; he knows the importance of sustaing economic activities at the rural areas. There is no doubt that NIPOST under his leadership will live up to expectation if government buys the idea of leveraging on the agency to drive its SIPs.
To this writer, the best befitting farewell President Muhammadu Buhari can get is to win the Nobel Prize on peace before 2023. How government manages its SIPs will go a very long way in paving the way for the President to win the coveted prize. The noble prize committee had established long ago that there is nexus between lifting people out of poverty and peace; when it awarded the 2006 peace prize to Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus and Grameen bank. It will be recalled that Muhammad Yunus the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below”. The reason given by Norwegian Nobel Committee for the award was that; “lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty” and that “across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development”.
Since NIRSAL Microfiance bank, operational in NIPOST offices across Nigeria which is equivalent to Grameen bank in Bangladesh, is already in place, what government should do is to summon the will to reposition NIPOST across Nigeria to be able to effectively drive the SIPs so that no part of the country is left untouched, in terms of benefitting from the programmes. By this, the digital economy drive of federal government would have become a living reality; as a result of expected booming of micro economic activities at the rural areas of the country.
Good enough, the recently commissioned 2019 National Security Strategy by President Muhammadu Buhari which main objective is the “achievement of a safer and more secure nation”, tallies with the reason given by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in awarding the peace prize to Muhammad Yunus. Another task before Dr Ismail Adebayo Adewusi-led NIPOST is to also focus the agency’s energy towards helping government realize its National Security Strategy. Government should, in the same token, reposition the agency to play its expected role effectively and efficiently.
Emeka Oraetoka
Information Management Consultant and Researcher
Wrote from Garki-Abuja. E-mail: giltsdaimension@gmail.com
GSM: 09039094636, 08056031187.
