Maintenance Of Government Office Buildings In Nigeria- A Post Occupancy Evaluation Approach

Maintenance is very important to preserve and enhance the life span of buildings. In many developing countries including Nigeria, very little seems to be done in carrying out planned maintenance of public buildings. In Nigeria, it has become quite distressful to see the way in which many public buildings are allowed to fall into a bad state of disrepair due to lack of maintenance. Many state governments claim that it is due to lack of funds, but what is the aim of expending huge sums of money building such edifices if after a few years, they are allowed to become dilapidated due to lack of proper maintenance? The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements noted that in many developing countries, poor maintenance practices are the result not so much of lack of resources as of "lack of workable strategies, methodologies and techniques for effective utilization of available resources in a systematic and methodical manner"(Habitat, 1991). The lack of maintenance culture in Nigeria can be traced back to the rapid rate of urbanisation in the country since independence in 1960. Traditionally, in the villages, there was and still is a culture of maintenance.