NASS 8th Senate website ‘medieval’, lists retired, dead as serving members

So much noise has been made about Nigeria diversifying its economy by enhancing other sectors and looking away from oil and gas. Many have suggested the ICT sector, seeing that we are now in an information age and technology seems to be the driver of growth in any economy with the advent of internet of things (IOT).

However, many are left to wonder why after so much talk about technology by the government and even after an e-legislature bill was proposed and people thought the Senate was embracing technology, its website is still very much outdated.

Ali Ndume, the Senate leader, had previously expressed worry that the low ICT literacy level among members of the National Assembly may hinder the effective operation of e-legislation being proposed in the upper chamber.

According to him, the e-legislation, when introduced, is expected to engender “robust and effective debates” at the National Assembly as members are expected to have received details of bills early enough to prepare for discussions.
“We are facing some hitches in this direction as some senators are not ICT compliant. But we will move on as time goes by,” he said.

Industry watchers are of the view that this said poor knowledge of ICT may be the reason the upgrade to the use of technology has not been well received by many of the Nigerian government agencies.

It has been noticed that on the senate.gov.ng website, many of the names listed as senators in the different senatorial districts are outdated.
The names of senators have not been updated since it was published on Thursday, October 11, 2012.
For Akwa-Ibom State, Helen Esuene is still listed as the senator for Akwa-Ibom South instead of Nelson Asuquo Effiong; Aloysius Akpan Etok is listed as the senator for Akwa-Ibom North West instead of Godswill Akpabio who is the current senator.

Information for Anambra State still states Chris Ngige as senator for Anambra Central instead of Uche Lilian Ekwunife. Interestingly, the senator for Anambra North is stated as ‘unknown’ on the official website for the Nigerian Senate.

While Babafemi is still on the website as the senator for Ekiti Central instead of Olufunke Raji-Rasaki and Olubunmi Adetunmbi is still representing Ekiti North instead of Duro Samuel Faseyi, according to the Senate website.

Apart from the fact that this website has not been updated with current names of senators, vital information needed by the public cannot be accessed through this site as most of the required fields have been left blank. Simple information such as the senator’s political party, date elected, date of birth, educational qualification, appointments held, legislative experience, mission in office and the likes are not available for most of the listed senators or past senators as the case may be.

BDSUNDAY investigations also revealed that these irregularities are not peculiar to the Senate but are prevalent in most state government websites.

On the Lagosstate.gov.ng website, Femi Olugbile is still listed as the Permanent Secretary for Health instead of Omdele Joyce Osunkiyesi in its principal officers list, Enitan Oshodi is also still listed as the Commissioner for Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development while Abiodun Bisi Fajobi who retired from service over two years ago is still on the website as the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development, to mention a few.

With the current state of backwardness in the use of technology by the Nigerian government even in their official websites, little wonder why social media presence of most government agencies and parastatals is nothing to write home about.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has close to zero existence on social media platforms. Since September 2008, when the @cenbank twitter account was created, it has only recorded 983 tweets. Very limited information can be gathered from its tweets and sometimes the account goes for days without a single tweet. The same goes for its Facebook page which basically just posts links to the Central Bank’s official website.

Chijioke Anthony Eke, current chairman and co-founder of SidmachTechnologies Nigeria Limited, told BDSUNDAY in an interview that the ICT industry in Nigeria could have been much better with government cooperation.

“We stakeholders will continue to disturb the government until they embrace ICT and realise the huge potentials in the ICT and the numerous benefits it can bring to the country. We are in a time of internet of everything and so Nigeria must not lag behind. It should start with the government.”
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communication Technology, Tunji Olaopa, who spoke in Lagos at the DEMO Africa 2015 event, noted that ICT is an enabler for all sectors and spheres of life.

“As we realise day by day, we are compelled to embrace, explore and leverage on its roles to change things positively. From government perspective, we cannot afford to ignore the geese that lay the golden eggs – that is, the ICT innovators, the software and hardware developers, the ICT entrepreneurs.

However, his statement does not reflect the way Nigerian government makes use of the rapidly growing technology in the country and the world at large.

Florence Seriki, President of Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) said that; “Government really needs to stay updated in the ever evolving world of technology in order to put Nigeria on the global map.”
Jumoke Akiyode