Nigeria’s costly culture of neglect

Nigeria loves ribbon-cutting ceremonies when we gather for the commissioning of new bridges, highways, rail lines and public buildings with speeches, applause and media displays. What we rarely gather for is maintenance, which is the problem.

Across administrations, Nigeria has demonstrated a troubling pattern – we build, we celebrate, we abandon, and then we rebuild at a higher cost. The discipline of maintenance, as a national strategy, has never truly taken root.

For example, the Third Mainland Bridge, once the pride of West Africa, has undergone repeated emergency repairs after years of heavy usage without consistent preventive maintenance. The Niger Bridge, linking the South East to the rest of the country, became synonymous with gridlock and structural stress long before serious rehabilitation efforts began. The Eko Bridge and Carter Bridge have similarly suffered cycles of neglect and hurried intervention.

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These structures are not mere slabs of concrete; they are economic routes. When they fail, supply chains slow, commuters lose productive hours, transport costs rise and national output suffers.

Nigeria’s history is dotted with ambitious infrastructure that fell into disrepair because maintenance was treated as an afterthought.

The iconic National Theatre, inaugurated in 1976 as a cultural landmark, deteriorated for decades before recent concession efforts sought revival. The massive Ajaokuta Steel Complex remains a symbol of industrial promise stalled by policy inconsistency and poor asset stewardship. Murtala Muhammed International Airport once embarrassed travellers with decaying terminals and malfunctioning facilities before phased upgrades. The old narrow-gauge rail system, under the Nigerian Railway Corporation, suffered decades of neglect before modern rail investments re-emerged.

“Likewise, there is weak institutional accountability, as there is little consequence for asset deterioration. Performance metrics rarely include asset condition indices.”

Even public universities, teaching hospitals, dams and refineries follow a similar pattern (impressive at commissioning, fragile in continuity).

The implications are enormous, as deferred maintenance is not savings; it is postponed liability. When a road is not resurfaced on schedule, potholes multiply, vehicles incur higher repair costs, accidents increase and logistics expenses climb. When power infrastructure is poorly maintained, outages intensify and businesses turn to generators, inflating production costs. When water systems fail, public health risks escalate, as the cost of reactive repair is always higher than preventive care.

In macroeconomic terms, poor maintenance inflates capital expenditure. The government repeatedly allocates funds to rehabilitate infrastructure that could have been preserved at a fraction of the cost. This crowds out investment in new development.

There is also a reputational cost, as investors interpret decaying infrastructure as a signal of weak governance. Tourists interpret it as neglect, and the citizens interpret it as indifference.

We know several structural issues fuel this culture, and first among them is that political incentives favour new projects. Elected officials gain visibility from commissioning new infrastructure, not from quietly servicing existing ones, as maintenance rarely makes headlines.

Also, budgeting is capital-heavy and maintenance-light. Recurrent budgets often get squeezed during fiscal stress, and maintenance allocations are among the first casualties.

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Likewise, there is weak institutional accountability, as there is little consequence for asset deterioration. Performance metrics rarely include asset condition indices.

And the worst among them is corruption and contract opacity.

Maintenance contracts are sometimes inflated or poorly supervised, leading to substandard execution. The result is predictable: infrastructure ages faster than it should.

The lesson from enduring institutions, whether corporate or national, is clear – what you maintain, you keep. Maintenance protects asset value, extends lifespan, reduces life-cycle cost, and preserves public trust.

Nations that sustain world-class infrastructure embed maintenance into governance architecture, conduct periodic structural audits, digitise asset management systems, ring-fence maintenance funds, and treat preventive care as non-negotiable.

If we are serious about breaking this cycle, reform must be deliberate and systemic.

Institutionalise asset management frameworks: Every ministry and state government should maintain a publicly accessible asset register detailing the condition, maintenance schedule and funding status of major infrastructure, as data-driven oversight reduces neglect.

Ring-fence maintenance funds: A dedicated infrastructure maintenance fund, protected from diversion, can ensure predictable financing. Public-private partnerships may also be structured with clear maintenance obligations and performance penalties.

Shift political metrics: Performance evaluations for ministers, governors and agency heads should include measurable infrastructure condition indicators, not just project completion counts.

Embrace technology: Smart sensors, drone inspections and predictive analytics can detect early structural stress in bridges, highways and dams, as preventive intervention is cheaper than emergency reconstruction.

Strengthen regulatory oversight: Independent engineering audits must be mandatory at defined intervals. Reports should be transparent and actionable.

Foster a culture of care: Maintenance is also cultural. When public offices, schools and hospitals are visibly cared for, citizens mirror that behaviour, as neglect breeds neglect.

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Maintenance extends beyond physical assets. When these assets decay, rebuilding them is far more expensive than preserving them. Nigeria does not lack the capacity to build, as the skylines of Lagos and Abuja prove that. But we lack the discipline to sustain it.

Leadership is measured not only by how many projects are commissioned but also by how long those projects remain functional and worthy of pride.

If Nigeria can shift from a culture of inauguration to a culture of preservation, we will save billions, attract confidence and deliver better value to citizens. We know in the end, the strength of a nation is not in how loudly it cuts ribbons but in how quietly it maintains foundations.