CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The Advanced Learners
Dictionary defines maintenance as the process of protecting or preserving
someone or something, or the process of keeping something in good condition.
Culture, on the other hand, is a way of life, a lifestyle, customs, traditions,
habits that portray the attributes of a person/people.
Maintenance
culture is an attitude which is sadly lacking in Nigeria, whether in the home,
office, school or factory. Mbamali(2003) added that poor maintenance culture
has become a widely recognized problem in Nigeria which has poorly affected the
quality of public properties.
Public
property is property that is dedicated to public use and is a subset of state
property. The term may be used either to describe the use to which the property
is put, or to describe the character of its ownership (owned collectively by
the population of a state). This is in contrast to private property, owned by
an individual person or artificial entities that represent the financial
interests of persons, such as corporations. State ownership, also called public
ownership, government ownership or state property, are property interests that
are vested in the state, rather than an individual or communities (Wikipedia,
2015).
Maintenance
culture in Nigeria is one of the lowest around the world, especially, in our
principal towns and cities where the majority of public properties are located.
In the rural areas, the story is different and pleasant to hear. The
traditional practice of communal clearing of community owned places such as
market playground is in almost every village and in private homes. Also, it is
customary to refurbish building interiors with mixtures of cow dung or natural
red clay. The end result is attractive and totally indigenous. According to Wahab(1995)
the nation accords low priority to property management leading to neglect of
public properties. Mbamali(2003) asserted that we have no maintenance policy
and therefore no such culture exists. Neglect of maintenance has accumulated
consequences in rapid increase in the deterioration of the fabric and finishes
of a building, accompanied by a harmful effect on the contents occupants Seeley,
(1987). Inadequate maintenance culture is a peculiar feature of almost every public
building in Nigeria. According to Rotimi and Mtallib(1995) is partly due to
poor maintenance culture on one hand and partly due to the absence of an
appropriate benchmark. Gurjit(1990) asserted that lack of proper maintenance
culture bring the life of these public building last before reaching the total
obsolescence state. The declining maintenance culture in Nigeria and its effect
on public buildings and all other properties has become a major problem to the
government at various levels. This study examines ways of improving maintenance
culture and its effect on quality of public properties
A great
portion of a nation wealth is evident in the total value of its public
properties and buildings; it is also an important factor in the production of
the building to be preserved. A poorly maintained building in a decaying
environment depresses the quality of live and contributes in some measures to
anti social behaviour which threatens the socio"political environment it
finds itself in
According to Stephen
(2002)public properties services rarely perform as well as desired. The causes
emanate from deficiencies in design, construction, commissioning and
maintenance, many researchers have also observed that the generators of
maintenance problems could be looked upon hascaused during the design stage or
construction stage or initiated during the usage stage or the user’s carefree
attitudes (Bad maintenance culture) which will eventually
deteriorate the condition of the property.
He further
said that all these could be planned for during the design stage. Maintenance
problems though do manifest during the use of the building, their causes might
be during the design stage. These made Dekker(2002) to assert
that thinking on the maintenance should start in the design phase. According to
Speight (2000), it is at the design stage
that the maintenance burden can be positively influenced for better or for
worse. Where the designer fails to make adequate consideration for minimizing maintenance problems, it always turns out to
be a big problem when the building is
eventually occupied for usage, the consideration for effective maintenance as
one of the parameters for the building design. Seeley (1997) also said that a
skilful design can reduce the amount of maintenance work and also make it
easier to perform, since good maintenance begins on the drawing board.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Oladimeji (1996) further describedmaintenance of public
properties as the combination of any continuous actionscarried out to retain a
property in or restore it to anacceptable condition. Onwuka (1989) stated
thatmaintenance culture is concerned with theplanning and control of
construction resources toensure that necessary repairs and renewal are
carriedout with maximum efficiency and economy to enhance the quality of the
property. However, the researcher is examining the ways of improving
maintenance culture and quality of public properties in Nigeria.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
1. To
examine ways of improving maintenance culture in Nigeria.
2. To
determine ways of enhancing the quality of public properties through improved
maintenance culture.
3. To
determine the factors affecting maintenance culture in Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
2. What
are the ways of improving maintenance culture in Nigeria?
3. What
are the ways of enhancing the quality of public properties through improved
maintenance culture?
4. What
are the factors affecting maintenance culture in Nigeria.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The following are the significance of this study:
1. The
findings from this study will educate the government and policy makers,
stakeholders in building and the general public on the need for improvement in
maintenance culture as a way of improving the quality of public property.
2. This
research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars and researchers
interested in carrying out further research in this field subsequently, if
applied will go to an extent to provide new explanation to the topic
1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This study on improving maintenance culture and
quality of public properties in Nigeria will cover the attitude of Nigerians to
the adequate maintenance of public properties, looking at ways to improve
maintenance culture with a view to improve the quality of public properties.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the
efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature
or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire
and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously
engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down
on the time devoted for the research work.