Sokoto, Kebbi and Imo state governments have yet to unveil their new websites months after they commenced upgrading work on them.
Findings on Monday showed that websites of the three state governments were still suspended just as their operators said they were undergoing an upgrading process.
The PUNCH had reported that the Katsina, Sokoto, Imo and Kebbi state governments suspended their official portals to have them rebuilt to meet interactive communication needs of the public.
When our correspondent visited sokotostate.gov.ng , the official site of the Sokoto State Government, on Monday, it was left frozen with a message – “We are working hard to improve our website and we will be ready to launch in one week and three days’ time.”
In September, the same message was found on the blank digital space. Back then, the state government said the reconstruction, which was still in progress on Monday, would take a week and two days.
The Kebbi State Government also announced on its suspended site that it would launch its site soon as what it had were sampled pages of what its developer was working on. As of Monday, the notice was still displayed on the almost-blur portal.
“ Kebbistate.com is dedicated to the development of Kebbi State. We will, work as a team, make Kebbi State greater. Please check back regularly for updates. We hope to help in raising political awareness concerning what it means to be a Kebbian . After all, we are all in this together.
“Together, we can ensure better life for future generations of Kebbians . Equally, you can inform your computer-literate friends and associates to check the website regularly and email us their names and phone numbers, as we embark on a project to compile names, phone numbers and email addresses of all our indigenes, who are passionately and actively working for Kebbi State’s development,” the government noted.
Katsina State Government was among states in the North-West that had earlier put up their sites for reconstruction. As of Monday, its katsina.gov.ng could not be traced on the cyberspace much less viewing its current status. The site may have been taken down after a report on its dormant status.
In the South-East, the Imo State Government, in August, also suspended its domain – imostate.gov.ng – to have it upgraded.
As of Monday evening, a message displayed on the inactive site said it would be unveiled in seven hours’ time.
The state government said it was carrying out some maintenance to improve the performance of the site. It called on interested visitors to drop a message via a dialogue box provided on the demobilised site.
There have not been improvements on the performances of state government-operated digital platforms. From South-West to North-West and South-East to North-East, the story is almost the same. State governments’ platforms are either abandoned completely or not regularly updated.
A few states are, in worse cases, not linked to functional websites. For instance, Kaduna and Zamfara state governments have no functional web presence.
The digital status of the Kaduna State Government, especially, contradicts Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s soaring social media profile.
With 670,000 Twitter followers, el-Rufai is currently the most-followed Nigerian politician on the networking platform. The governor surpasses, for instance, President Muhammadu Buhari’s combined followers on
@NGRPresident and @MBuhri .
On Facebook as well, el-Rufai’s verified account is active and highly-rated in terms of visibility. His Facebook followers are over 500, 000. His just-unveiled official
Twitter page – @GovKaduna – is also gaining relevance by the day; it has over 8,000 users to its credit already.
In the South-South, the Edo State Government also operates an obscure website. Just like Governor Adams Oshiomhole, the state government does not have a page on any social media site. Its website, apart from the historical facts it contains, is rarely updated.
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