By Abolaji Adebayo
With their functional websites, local councils in Lagos State are engaging residents by informing them of their activities and providing opportunities.
Investigations of websites of local councils conducted by ECHONEWS revealed that the websites also serve a global audience located far from the communities.
Irrespective of where they live across the world, the indigenes of those local councils can access information about their communities and be part of governance.
This is known as electronic governance (e-governance).
Some of the local councils which have keyed into the modern technology to disseminate information through websites include Mushin LG; Odiolowo-Ojuwoye LCDA; Igbogbo Bayeku LCDA; Eredo LCDA; Ibeju-Lekki LG; Alimosho LG; Ikeja LG; Ojodu LCDA; and Isolo LCDA.
While this is appreciable, however, compared the number of those running websites with those without functional websites, experts and other stakeholders have expressed concern, worried about the low level of information dissemination at the grassroots.
They charged the local governments to create functional websites to promote electronic governance to engage more people in their activities.
The development of electronic governance (e-governance) service has proved to be an easy way to deliver the services as it benefits all government website users, including citizens, business and public servants, and also saves a lot of effort and money.
However, investigation by ECHONEWS shows that despite the huge advantage of the technology, many local governments at yet to tap the opportunity to use the technology to engage their citizens.
It was revealed that very few Local Governments (LGs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in Lagos State have official standard websites through which information about their activities could be accessed.
Where the sites are functional, they do not have the necessary information such as the history of the local council, the structures, the past political office holders, and so on.
The media platform aimed to investigate the extent of use of online services provided by local government websites and to identify the major issues and obstacles for local government websites and assess the ability of users to use websites to access the local government information and services.
The results gathered showed that there is an urgent need for improving the local government websites to promote the use of government services online.
Out of 57 Local Governments (LGs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in Lagos State, only nine representing 16 per cent were discovered to have websites while many others bank on other social media such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook.
Those with functional websites inclhde: Mushin LG (mushin.lg.gov.ng); Odiolowo-Ojuwoye LCDA (odiolowoojuwoye.lg.gov.ng); Igbogbo Bayeku LCDA (igbogbobayekulcda.lg.gov.ng); Eredo LCDA (eredo.lg.gov.ng); Ibeju-Lekki LG (ibejulekki.lg.gov.ng); Alimosho LG (alimosho.lg.gov.ng); Ikeja LG (Ikeja.lg.gov.ng); Ojodu LCDA (ojodu.lg.gov.ng); and Isolo LCDA (https://www.isololcda.com.ng/).
Some of the local councils who have websites do not have up-to-date information about their activities on their websites, making it difficult for information seekers and residents especially those in the diaspora to be abreast of the activities in their local councils.
For instance, Odi-Olowo/Ojuwoye LCDA website, http://odiolowoojuwoye.lg.gov.ng/ was last updated on November 9, 2021.
The Ibeju-Lekki LG website (https://ibejulekki.lg.gov.ng/2022/01/) was last updated on January 18, 2022.
Igbigbo Bayeku LCDA updated its website (http://igbognobayekulcda.lg.gov.ng/) on November 23, 2021.
Isolo LCDA just recently got a functional website (https://www.isololcda.com.ng/) created by the new council chairman, Otunba Adebayo Olasoju to commemorate his 100 days in office.
Eredo LCDA in Epe LG has a website.it was updated last which is not reader friendly, the in October last year.
So many others do not update their websites while some others have been suspended such as Mushin Local Government (http://mushin.lg.gov.ng).
Websites have, in the last decade, grown in use.Today however, there are about 2 billion websites, but only around 400 million of them are active.
Large numbers of those websites belong to various levels of governments at the federal, state, and local levels.
In the early days of website development, government websites were a bit of a novelty. They were nice to have, but web developers were not really sure what content to put on them.
In those days, governments commonly used their websites as a means for branding themselves. With the ability to change the design of the site by adding photos and graphics, governments could provide a visual story of their area and the services it provides.
Today, government websites still depict the flavour of the area and its people.
The difference now is that government websites have many purposes. A government website is a landing place where citizens can learn about the government’s history, organizational values, codes of ethics, and information about elected officials and other public servants.
Another difference is that today’s citizens are more likely to look for information about government services online than to pick up the phone and make a call to get information.
The purposes of government websites are now just more than pretty sites to look at. They provide many useful purposes. The important things to keep in mind are that citizens look to government websites for information that is useful, timely, informative, and up to date.
Unfortunately, many of the local government websites do not measure up to the purposes for creating websites.
For instance on the websites of the Lagos State Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, information on some things such as projects, events, past commissioners, past permanent secretaries could be found.
This is not obtainable on the websites of the local governments.
Public Affairs Officers who spoke to Echonews anonymously believe that more funds would go to building websites if council chairmen are given the right orientation on the importance of electronic governance.
They said most councils seem okay with their presence on social media platforms such as
WhatsApp and Facebook to disseminate little information about the council.
This is the situation with so many other local governments as gathered by ECHONEWS.
Meanwhile, one of the media team members of Isolo LCDA Chairman said the council chairman upholds the value of information dissemination hence, the creation of a new functional website, adding that the websites is always updated.
A web expert, Patrick Adekunle said many local governments do not grow due to their cold attitude to new technology.
He said no organisation can move by restricting itself to only social media such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook, saying only few people who are added to the platforms can access information about the local government.
Adekunle said everybody has access to the website anywhere in the world without being restricted.
He stated that having a functional website will ease information gathering by the residents and other information seekers.
According to him, residents and other users know that if they have to call their government office, they are likely to be on hold for a long time.
“They would rather visit your website and pay their utility bill, apply for a building permit, submit a service request or report a hazard. Your website is purposeful when citizens can accomplish these things quickly.
“As the number of websites grew, so did their designs. Most governments wisely kept their websites simple with most of the information at the top of the page. That’s because most people viewed web pages from a desktop computer. When mobile devices gained in popularity, users quickly got used to the idea of scrolling. Give your government website purpose by using a responsive design that automatically scales and reformats the web pages to fit smaller screens.
“Searching for Information. Google has taught citizens well how to use search boxes. Most people are capable of typing in a question or a few keywords and be taken where they need to go. Many government websites even put a search box on their homepage in a visible place. Use designs that are intuitive and user-friendly so that people can find what they need quickly even without knowing the structure of the government.”
The web expert said many local governments keep their residents in the loop with social media.
He said: “Today’s governments need to think past Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The White House joined SnapChat in 2016 with the goal of meeting people where they are. People pay attention when govt news comes to them. The latest social media sensation for governments is Snapchat. Do you know that Snapchat surpassed Twitter in 2016? SnapChat also surpassed Instagram in 2018.
Adekunle said one of the reasons citizens would rather search government website for an answer than to place a phone call is because they do not want to have to wait on hold for long periods just to get an answer to a simple question.
“That’s the benefit of adding a chat bubble to your website during normal working hours where citizens can get a quick answer to a simple, but important question. The states of Mississippi and Nebraska can open a chat window on their state government sites and chat with a live staff member. Alabama citizens can even text state staff when they need help.”
An official of the Nigerian Communication Commission who prefers anonymity said the commission may soon regulate the local governments online across the nation.
He urged the federal government to mandate all local governments to have functional websites, stating that it would even help the federal government to have up-to-date data of each local government.