Adamawa, Rivers, Katsina ranked worst in e-governance

Adamawa State Government has been rated as the worst state in e-governance in the country, as it is the only state without a functional website.

Rivers, Katsina, Imo, and Ebonyi trailed Adamawa closely behind in that order as they too have a very poor e-governance presence among other states of the federation while Lagos, Anambra, Enugu, Akwa Ibom rated first, second, third, and fourth states with most vibrant and effective websites among states in the country.

The Nigerian Panorama, an independent specialised publication revealed this on Monday in Lagos while presenting its May CGPI e-Governance Report to the newsmen.

According to the report, 10 criteria were used to rank the performance of each of the 36 states of the federation on their online presence with Adamawa State scoring zero per cent throughout.

Rivers, Katsina, Imo, and Ebonyi states scored 16 percent, 21 percent, 21.5 percent, and 22 per cent, respectively.

Lagos State rated best on the list scored 85 percent while Anambra, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, and Ondo scored 76 per cent, 72 per cent, 68 per cent, 67 per cent, and 65 per cent, respectively.

Additionally, such states like Cross River, Kano, Nasarawa, Benue, Edo, Bayelsa, Osun, Plateau, Zamfara, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Delta, Jigawa and Kaduna scored between 60 percent and 40 percent while others such as Oyo and Borno scored below 40 per cent.

The criteria used according to the report include Security and SSL (i.e. how secure the websites are), content relevance (which speaks to citizens’ needs), up-to-date information, user-friendliness (accessibility and design), citizen engagement and feedback mechanisms (interactivity).

Others are empowerment opportunities, MDAs’ directory (who’s who in government), updates on policy and regulation, budget and project transparency (accountability), and online services (bringing governance to the citizens).

The report showed that majority of the states only operate websites without any key government activity on them for several months or even years. For example, the latest content on Ebonyi State’s website dated 2023.

It also showed that most of the states with active websites uploaded only the achievements of their governors and at times their wives without bothering about serious government business such as budgets and projects, directory to engage the citizens.

Reacting to the outcome of the report, the chairman of the event and centre director, Commonwealth Institute of Advanced Studies( CIAPS), Prof Anthony Kila, bemoaned the development, saying it’s unheard of that in this digital economy, state governments such as Adamawa and even Rivers will neglect totally the use of e-governance.

He said state government ought to see websites not only as essential tools for citizen engagement, service delivery, and transparency but also as the first port of contact for both citizens and investors.

He said it was also surprising that most of the phone and email contacts on many of the state websites including those rated high are not working as messages and inquiries sent to them were not responded to for weeks.

He noted that the Kila however, urged various state governments including those with high scores such as Lagos and Anambra to do better as regards e-governance, saying that is the way to go in this 21st Century economy.

The don argued that it would be difficult for any state that failed in the operation of e-governance and digital platforms to be successful in physical performance.

He said it was high time that state and other levels of government in the country re-imagined digital governance as a veritable platform to engage the citizens as the practice in developed countries such as UK, USA, and Canada to mention but a few.

He noted that the magazine had indicated to do a follow-up on the report in six months to assess the response of various state governments.

He said report like this is expected to spur various state governments and the MDAs to take action on operating effective websites.

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