The courier business is a time sensitive one which does not need to be disturbed to be able to meet the urgent nature of the business. Unfortunately, in addition to other problems suffered by courier operators in Nigeria such as bad road network, poor condition of available roads, power problem, local government authorities in the country have also turned out to be a great hindrance to swift courier operations. This development has lingered for sometime now and all the efforts made by courier stakeholders have not realized any positive result. The Courier regulatory Department of the Nigerian postal service whose duty it is to regulate the postal and courier sector had in the bid to smoothen courier operations tried to handle the matter the top hierarchy of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) but nothing much was achieved . Dr. Simon Emeje had in earlier interview with this correspondent on the matter said that they had been working on the matter as far back as three years now but lamented that the problem is more complicated than what the eyes can see. Emeje said that they took the matter up sometime ago as an organization by setting up a technical sub-committee from the Courier Consultative Forum in respect of courier activities even at the airport. The committee put up a paper and sent it to the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to address the issue of multiple charges from FAAN. Dr Emeje also said he was able to work with the postmaster general of the federation to put up a paper across to the then minister of communication as the problem had become more perennial defying every solution towards solving it. The effort was to have the matter discussed at the ministerial level by the communications minister with his colleagues in the aviation and other ministries and bodies that have to do something with the courier operations like the Nigeria Police Force, local government commissioners and others. In the process Emeje said they discovered that the problem was more social than just economic. This fact is corroborated by Toyin Adeojo, manager, Cross Country Courier. Adeojo said that even when you have discussed the matter with local government chairmen, they would not be on the road when the boys arte extorting money from their couriers. He said that a situation whereby all the documents obtained in Lagos State for example are not valid in other parts of the country especially in the eastern parts of Onitsha, Asaba and Orlu is quite unfortunate. Adeojo said the effect of those harassments is delayed delivery and breach of the trust because sometimes the miscreants tamper with their consignments. “No matter the kind of document you present, they will look for a loophole/ for instance, there are situations when they ask for waste basket sticker on a courier van that is not moving passengers. The situation is disturbing and alarming”, Adeojo lamented. The actually represents the agonies other courier companies pass through in carrying out their legitimate businesses.
Dr Emeje described the scenario as unfortunate whereby you have miscreants all over the place who come to you claiming they are from one local government or the other asking dispatch rider to pay for radio or things of that nature. Emeje asks “why would they ask a dispatch to do so. Is he supposed to mount radio on the motor-cycle?
With the problems the express industries are going through, Adeojo said achieving the Vision 2020 agenda of the federal government in leapfrogging the country to be a key player in the world economy will not be realized. He said parcels take just about eight hours or less to arrive the country from abroad but the same consignments spend days to get to their destinations on arrival into the country because of operational delays. He said such a development is not good for our economy. To him, it is important that ALGON addresses the matter as it is critical to service delivery.
