Information pathology

One of the most perplexing issues in Nigeria is that of information management. The government is spectacularly inept at it - whether its dealing with the aftermath of a plane crash or defending its own day-to-day decisions and policies. The current case in point is the new bus transit system in Abuja. No one knows what the bus routes are. No one knows where to buy tickets from. The bus stops which were erected over a year ago have become largely symbolic - buses stop wherever they see a potential passenger. In other words, the whole set-up is pure confusion.

What would it have taken the FCT administration to put on an awareness and communication campaign? Why didnt they put up posters, do some radio and tv slots, maybe even create a website? As it is, no one knows how the bus system is supposed to work. I see many empty buses ambling around town. Meanwhile, people walk and walk.

The deeper issue is why the government is so averse to providing those it serves, the citizens, with the information they require. Its either that they view citizen-centric information as a privilege to be earnt (a hang-up from the military years), or there is just such clod-hopping organisational ineffectiveness that they are not competent to do the simplest things, such as creating a table of routes, then designing and pasting up some posters. It's the same issue with getting the Bureau of Statistics to publish their survey results (see a post yesterday) - the blood will not come out of the stone.

There needs to be an information revolution in the public sector (the private sector is almost as bad - witness the pathetic attempts to communicate service offerings amongst the telcos). The government needs to hire competent media professionals who know how to run campaigns and provide public service information. Evidently, the people doing these jobs at the moment should be fired.