The Nigeria High Commission in the United Kingdom has pulled down statements and policies related to the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan from its website.
Recall that Jonathan left office in 2015 following his defeat to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the year’s presidential election.
However, reports emerged recently that the Nigerian High Commission website still displays information from Jonathan’s administration despite the transition from Buhari’s government to President Bola Tinubu’s government.
Despite the change in Nigeria’s national anthem in May with the approval of the National Anthem Bill, 2024, Arise O Compatriots, the old anthem, reportedly remained on the website.
Daily Trust noted in a report that the policy statements of President Tinubu, who assumed office in 2023 and has visited the UK at least five times since then, were not found as of October 4, 2024
New updates, however, have surfaced on the commission’s website just a few days after the media’s observation.
However, information from Jonathan’s tenure was still present in key sections.
Also, the new anthem, ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’, has now been featured on the website.
Additionally, Jonathan’s policy statements that once dominated the website have been removed.
Visiting sections like Economy Overview, Labour Market and Unemployment, Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing, Mining & Semi-Processing, among others, which had not been updated since Obasanjo’s era, now have an “update in progress” note.
Dr. Bola Akintehinwa, who previously served as the Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), voiced his dissatisfaction with the old-fashioned data on the commission’s site, arguing that it casts a poor light on Nigeria’s reputation abroad.
He was worried that the absence of policy documents from President Tinubu’s government on the site indicated a lost chance to leverage global connections for the advancement of Nigeria’s economy and progress.
“It is how you are perceived that people relate with you. It shows that public administration in Nigeria is, at best, zero. That is why, for instance, former British Prime Minster (David Cameron) described Nigeria as fantastically corrupt. When you’re fantastically corrupt, how do you expect to address minor issues like updating the website? It gives Nigeria a very bad image.
“It gives the government an image of recklessness; it tells investors that they can’t depend on information on the internet, and it is better for them to make inquiries one-on-one. If you don’t have updated information, they (the investors) will engage in bad decision-making. It only portrays Nigeria as, at best, an analogue country in a new world of globalisation and a technologically driven world,” he had told Daily Trust.
