Taking a cue from our present position as Nigerians, one could strongly assert that public institutions have seen the glory days but have now become a shadow of itself. In the early days of Nigeria as a state, I mean during the pre-independence days, public institutions thrived. I remember vividly how pipe-borne water was accessible. One does not need to sink a borehole in his residence because the government water works was perfectly working.
I could say the same for power supply. The glory days of constant power supply have become a mirage for people of this generation. And this all go down to show the state of dilapidation that has occured in our polity. From where I am writing this post, in a part of Lagos, Nigeria, the last time we had public power supply was in July 2024. This is how bad it has become. There is no more life in public institutions any more.
This accounted for the reason why most public institutions were commercialized and put in the hands of individuals who could manage and control equitable distribution. Let's not forget that some of these institutions provide essential services like power supply, water distribution, education and health care services.
Take a closer look at our public schools, you will attest to the fact that they are nowhere comparable to the excellent job happening in private institutions of learning. This is not to say that our public schools are outrightly bad but the private ones are better managed than the puic schools.
There are a hundred and one reasons why I would always prefer private institutions over the public ones.
Customers Service
Private institutions use marketing strategies to attract their customers and can anything to keep their customers. This is what public institutions do not have the prowess of doing. For instance, our health institutions, doctors could go on strike because of non-payment of their wages. On the other hand, the attitude to work because of little or no supervision is absolutely nonchalant. In some cases the subordinates feels bigger than their immediate bosses because of their political attachment, hence making control to be difficult.
In private institutions, the customer service is strong and always defends the customers. In fact, to the organization, The Customer is King and must be treated as such.
Flexibility
The decision making process in public institutions is highly tight. One office must be contacted or consulted so a decisive action can be taken and this can slow down the decision making process.
It is not so with private institutions. The private institutions make service delivery as promptly as possible.
Innovation
It is easy to bring in new ideas or latest methods in handy the running of a private institution unlike the public where a change in government can make the institution operate what is already outdated. Many private academic institutions have progressed into using modern 21st century teaching techniques like the adoption of smart boards and the use of google classrooms to run lectures whereas most public institutions are still dependent on physical lectures to run their programmes.
The application of 21st century techniques makes teaching and learning easy. Learning through the aids of video classroom and images increases retention of the learners. We hope that public institutions will imbibe this method before it gets outdated too.
Accountability
In private firms, profit making is a top agenda. Aside from the fact that private organizations would love to render quality services, their main goal is to maximize profit. By doing so, the private organization guards her finance department by ensuring that there is no embezzlement of funds.
Whereas, in the public institution, siphoning public funds is the order of the day. A school of thought has argued that embezzlement of public funds is one of the reasons why most public institutions have failed to meet up with the goals and objectives of establishing it.
In all, I wish to state categorically that public institutions are not totally bad but the process of managing them has turned them to be a looting tank unlike the private institutions where the organization is aimed at rendering quality service Inna competitive market with the aim of maximizing profits.