By: Quadri Yahya
The last time Abdulrosheed Fadipe had a reason to be at his local government Secretariat (Ila, Osun State) for a certificate, it took one week to finally get a copy. Why so? Almost all the processes involved are manually carried out.
“The manual process takes a longer time”, he said in a chat. “At one time, when we wanted to collect primary 6 certificates, we had to wait for almost a week before we were contacted at the council. At the end of the day, they had to typewrite the name of the recipient.”
Such analogue methods of documentation is the practice in many Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria, despite advancements in Information Communication and Technology. This is despite trillions of taxpayers’ money allocated for the administration of the local councils from the federal account.
In the same vein, while almost all federal agencies and state governments operate websites for information sharing and interaction with members of the public, LGAs are left behind. Online searches for many of the local governments with no website only showed sites where the LGAs were mentioned; most of them appeared under a vulnerable website, Journal of Local Governments of Nigeria.
A local government website will serve many purposes, including detailing the rich history of the people (pre-colonial & post-colonial), brief and contact information of representatives, local government headquarters/offices, landmass and population, proximity to other areas, states, or countries; mineral resources, agricultural activities, traditional rulers, tourist centres, annual festival, companies and so on.
Such pieces of information, though limited, are freely available on public sites like Wikipedia and Britannica.
In some states, only snippets of information about LGAs are crammed into state government websites; while others dedicate no space for their LGAs. It is interesting to also note that some state-owned websites only contain names of LGAs but carry no information about them.
However, an active website with an email address or phone number will facilitate easy, remote communication between residents and their representatives. But many LGAs are yet to embrace the digital age and therefore have no hosted site to interact and engage with residents.
Meanwhile, one of the issues that might be dissuading interest in the digitalisation of LGAs is that unskilled council workers are mostly employed at local secretariats; they are tasked with attending to residents’ enquiries and most of the time, works requiring documentation are carried out on paper.
Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) — subdivided into a minimum of 10 wards and a maximum of 15 wards — are headed by a Chairman and Vice Chairman, with an elected Councillor leading the ward.
The fourth schedule of the Nigeria Constitution 1999 specifically states that LGAs are responsible for “registration of deaths, marriages and births.”
PLATFORM TIMES’ findings cast doubt on the capability of the LG system to optimally perform its administrative duties, especially in terms of effective information dissemination and resident engagement.
Beyond the local areas, the website can also serve as a repertoire for useful information about the representatives of the people at the State House of Assembly and National Assembly.
PLATFORM TIMES’ findings revealed that a large number of LGAs in the South West and South-South regions of Nigeria have no functional website (there is a wide possibility that none of the LGAs in your state or residence has an active website!).
State where LGAs have no own website
All the 30 LGAs in Osun State (the land of virtue) virtually have no online presence.
Findings also show that LGAs mentioned on the Osun State Government website have little to no information.
Including the local government where the incumbent state governor, Ademola Adeleke is from (Ede), the LGA in the state capital (Osogbo) has no website.
Similarly, it appears that leaders in Ekiti State do not value digitisation of the 16 LGAs as none has a website of its own.
The 16 local government areas in Ekiti state also belong to this category.
The Pacesetter state also takes the backseat among states with some local governments operating an active website. Of the 33 LGAs in the state, none has a fully functional website. We found only an inactive site for Ibadan South West.
Every local government area in Bayelsa State has no active website. Likewise, local government representatives from Cross River State see no need for digitalisation despite their idiosyncratic rich cultures as none of the 18 LGAs has its own website.
Only 4 out of 20 LGAs in Ogun have digital platforms, 2 of 18 in Ondo, 6 of 20 in Lagos, 3 of 18 in Edo
LGAs in the Gateway state outperform Osun State as four local government areas namely Abeokuta North, Ado-Odo/Ota, Obafemi Owode and Odeda have active websites.
Like his counterpart, the local government area where Governor Abiodun is from has no digital platform.
All other LGAs in the state also featured in the insecure website JLGN, but with no information.
Including the Ondo state Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s local government (Ilaje), 16 LGAs in the state are not yet placed online by their representatives. Only the Idanre local government and Ondo West have a fairly active website and an insecure site, respectively.
Meanwhile, less than half of the 20 LGAs in the Centre of Excellence state operate websites.
LGAs like Ibeju-Lekki, Epe, Badagry, Lagos Island, Apapa, and Ikeja operate functional websites. It is worthy to note that some Local Government Development Areas, such as Igbogbo-Baiyeku LCDA (Ikorodu LGA), Ikoyi-Obalende LCDA have a functional website, even though not all are up-to-date.
However, upon further probe, PLATFORM TIMES found that contact information as well as email addresses on most of the websites are obsolete.
In Edo State, Egor, Etsako and Orhionmwon LGAs own their websites.
On the website for Egor local government, its mission statement reads: “to provide efficient, accountable, and transparent services to all residents in the community”.
“Etsako Central is a special place, rich in history, culture and natural beauty. Whether you’re a long-time resident or a first-time visitor, we’ll provide you with valuable information about our services, programs and initiatives”, the landing page of Etsako Central website reads.
Similarly, Orhionmwon LG has an accessible website which contains information about the local council. The remaining fifteen local government areas have no active website.
Other LGA with one LGA out of many having a website
In Akwa Ibom, only Mkpa-Enin has an active website. In the ‘About Us’ section of Mkpat Enin website, it is noted that the local government is “rich in agricultural produce such as palm fruit, coconut, plantain, cassava, vegetables and possess an abundance of natural resources such as crude oil and natural gas, limestone, magnesium, iron ore, salt, gypsum”.
The other 30 local governments have no website, including Uyo, the state capital.
Out of the twenty-five local government areas in Delta, only 1 (Oshimilli South) has an independent, active website. Also, a website named, “Warri Kingdom” was discovered and it provides information about Warri South, Warrington North and Warri South-West.
In the same offline situation, only Andoni local government – out of the 23 LGAs in Rivers state – operates an active website.
States rush to conduct election after LG autonomy
No fewer than 13 states have conducted local government elections following the Supreme Court judgment which mandated the federal government to directly allocate to the elected councils rather than caretaker committees installed by state governors.
Between June 2023 to May 2024, 137 local government areas across the six South-western states of Nigeria collectively received a substantial sum of N659.51 billion from the Federal Account Allocation Committee.
The states in the south-south region, four of which possess oil resources, raked in a hefty N1.84 trillion — the highest among the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria.
Local government representatives have commented that the autonomy will ameliorate rural problems if fully implemented.
Numerous suspicious social media accounts for LGAs
A search for the name of any local government will turn up a ton of results on the page and account. However, many of these accounts post irrelevant information about the local councils whose names they bear. Some accounts (including dating pages) appear to be suspicious as activities on them are not moderated by any representative.
Researcher, experts comment
Oftentimes, a freelance academic student-researcher, Olaitan Yusuf got stranded in his desktop research when understudying minority languages in Nigeria. He said establishing a website for local governments could save him and other researchers the stress of surfing through various online archives to get linguistic information about a particular local language.
“Difficulty that comes with searching for materials for minority languages can be lessened when local government officials operate websites with detailed information about linguistic diversity of the community”, Yusuf said.
“A comprehensive website can even be more resourceful than some online material.”
The cost for website development is estimated at N200,000, with a minimum of N50,000 maintenance fee monthly, according to a Nigerian web developer, Oladele Igbaboyemi.
A Public Relations practitioner, Nurudeen Salako expressed that the lack of digital presence “highlights a significant gap in public engagement and information dissemination.”
In a Facebook post, the Communication expert said, “For me, this is a serious concern because effective public relations are crucial for fostering transparency, accountability, and public trust in democratic governance. It empowers citizens and ensures their voices are heard.”
This report is produced with funding support from the Platform Times Investigative Journalism Foundation
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