Impact Of  Barracks Maintenance On Troops Performance. A Study Of Nigerian Army Barracks

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Maintenance is a generic term to include planned maintenance, repair and reimbursement and provision of replacement of the structure. British standard(BS 583) (1974) define maintenance as the combination of all technical and associated administrative actions intended to retain an item in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform its required function. The requirement for maintenance must not be less than those necessary to meet the relevant requirements and ‘maintained’ is defined in factories act 1961 as “maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair”
According to British Standard (BS 3811) maintenance is defined as “works undertaken in order to keep or restore every facility i.e. every part of a building, site and concept to an acceptable standard”. An acceptable standard in building terms is one which sustains the utility and value of the facility. Chartered institute of building (C.I.O.B) UK (1982) went forward to use this definition on maintenance “works undertaken to keep, restore or improve every facility i.e. every part of the building, its services and surroundings to agreed standards determined by the balance between need and available resources.
Obiegbu M.E. (1998) defined maintenance as a programmed transformation of a building fabric and services, reflecting changes in pattern of use and technology. Amobi C.O (2006) opined that “maintenance could be defined in engineering terminology as the continuous upkeep, in good condition of a system(s) to achieve operational reliability with maximum design output result, endurance and stability. This definition has been adapted for building maintenance as work undertaken to keep or restore every facility, that is, every part of a site, building and content to acceptable standard. Thus maintenance aims at retaining components, equipment as well as the entire structure at specified level of performance. The acceptable standard inferred must be no less than statutory requirement and one which sustains the facility and the value of the facilities. This may include a degree of improvement over the life of the building as acceptable comfort and amenity standards rise.
No institutional or commercial facility is immune from the impact of deferred maintenance. The nation’s military facilities are no exception.
Over the years, there has been increasing neglect on the maintenance of building and other infrastructural facilities in the military barrack which has led to the dilapidation, degradation and deterioration of these building structures within the barracks.
In 2011, then army chief Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika observed: “The Nigerian army has about 113 barracks, with some located in remote places, without public water supply and electricity. A sizeable number have not been renovated since they were built four decades ago” A. O. Ihejirik (2011).
Recently there has been a lot of research investigations and analysis of which points unshakeable to the fact that certain features such as cost of maintenance works, unskilled maintenance technicians, inflation rates, Government policies, inability to prepare and follow maintenance schedules are direct causes of neglect and deterioration of army barracks (onibokun 1997).
Basically in virtually all the barracks in Nigerian, buildings and infrastructural facilities are gradually and systematically decaying, dilapidating and deteriorating with reduced or no degree of maintenance programme and activity.
The lack of maintenance of these buildings and infrastructures negatively affects the officers morale and well being. It also causes all forms of ill-health and psychological effects thereby reducing the performance of the troops.