LETTER WRITING THROUGH THE AGES.
Why then is the Postal Service in Nigeria now an object of ridicule and abject neglect by the government and top functionaries?
Taiye Olaniyi
Not until the inception of the Dark Ages in Africa and Egypt in particular, Egypt had been the cradle of civilization in many forms.
About 381BC the idea of Letter Writing emanated from Egypt, later in Assyria, Persia, and China during the reign of Genghis Khan. It was around the 13th Century that Europe had a little bit of letter writing by the Monarch and by 1500 the Otto Von Taxis family started a courier, the growth of nationalism in Europe brought a rudimentary Postal Service to the public domain.
According to Yomi Akinyeye who did his Masters's academic research on "Posts and Telegraph History: 1852-1914" and is now a professor of History at the University of Lagos, the Post's history could be traced to around 1852 in Lagos when an agreement was reached by Her Royal Majesty, the Queen of England that her emails be moved from Britain to the West African Coast by Macgregor Laird of the Company of African Merchants.
A mail packet may be an ordinary, business, or parcel in postal parlance.
The richness of the mail packet is in its content, context, speed, and the security attached to it through the Post from the sender to the addressee or the receiver.
Letters had, have, and are being used for various purposes to suit both mundane and other very serious issues.
Have you wondered, pondered, and marveled at Letters you once wrote and/or received while you were young and in school, and now that you are, who you are?
I remembered as if it were yesterday, letters our parents used to force us to write to relations and friends, especially in Yoruba language, schools' obligatory assignments, sort of another, "Devil is a Lier" kind of letters to Lollipops, "Yours till the Ocean is Dry" and those you then itemized as
" Honey", Sweetheart" but which are today as bitter as "Yoyo Bitter" herb syrup.
Hmmm, those that "Love Letters" once joined together might and might not have been put asunder today by other forces within and /or beyond control.
Have you forgotten the words
" Splendid," " Ditto", "As Usual", "Guess", and "If so Doxology", that we all used to put in addressing our loved ones those days when men were men and women were babes with tantalizing mammary mountains?
Hmmm mmm, how we wished such days bounce back but, could the "Handwritten" letters and flowery words therein be re-enacted these days of anything and everything social media?
Such handwritten letters had made many ladies a victim of what Leo Nwankwo would call " To ba ri circumstances" when explaining his "Escape Theory" in why the excuses had to be given for the failure in meeting the promises made to the ever-gluttonous demands of ladies through letter-writing during our time.
Besides the exchange of pleasant pleasantries, letters also enhanced relationships among family members just as they could put families, and houses on fire including nations.
Business transactions, letters of appointment, promotion, demotion, dismissal, and retirements are all sorts of forms of LETTERS.
Treaties, agreements, concession, and "Memoranda of Understanding" all have their roots in Letter Writing.
Use of language, what is expressed and decorum are attributes of protocol attendant to the appreciation, and/ or the none of it when emotions underline what was written.
There is also the "Secrecy" or may I say "Confidentiality" attached to the letter writing thus, a mail packet through the ideal Postal Service is "SACRED" and on no ground be broached except in exceptional circumstances and the dictates of postal regulation.
I cannot deny the "Open Letters to the Editors", the Biblical Epistles to the Corinthians, Colossians, and those to the Ephesians.
Even in this Digital and ICT age, we still cherish confidentiality in our message boxes against those posted on a wall like this.
In our letters, we need and have to be mindful of the import and Impact as I align and cherish the Rotary Code:
" Is it Fair, the Truth", and I add will it elicit good and noble tidings?
"If the Lion kills in the jungle, the Jackal also profits from it", but how beneficial are the "Open Letters" that transverse today's media space in the perceived attempts to criticize positively or negatively too?
How would average Nigerians, poor and battered many fair by the letters you and I write today in the era of electronic witches and ICT wizards?
Nature takes its toll in the life of man and so in the "Akashic Record", a none respecter of classes and hierarchies, even of our unspoken thoughts which duly are recorded.
Why then is the Postal Service in Nigeria now an object of ridicule and abject neglect by the government and top functionaries?
Beware, so says the Son of Man because:
" From history comes a consoling Truth, that bad Kings, Princes and Times end up Shamed, Disgraced, and Thrown away by the rage of Angels."
Holy Michael Nigeria awaits you.
Taiye Olaniyi, a retired Postman of the Nigeria Postal Service, is based in Lagos