THE Federal Ministries of Youth and Sports Development headed by Jamila Bio Ibrahim and John Eno respectively have failed to update their website and social media platforms for over five months, The ICIR can report.
In November 2023, The ICIR reported how the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development kept portraying Sunday Dare as substantive minister six months after leaving office.
Subsequent findings showed that the website(http://www.youthandsport.gov.ng/) is now inaccessible. This is a development The ICIR observed has been ongoing since March. It might have started before then. As of the time of filling this report, it was still inaccessible saying “The site cannot be reached”.
The ministries had maintained joint social media platforms and a website under one minister before President Bola Tinubu split them into two and appointed Ibrahim as the minister of youth development and Enoh as the minister of sports development.
The ICIR observed that the X handle (archived here) owned by the two ministries was taken over by the Ministry of Youth Development but a separate X handle and website have not been created for the Ministry of Sports Development. However, they still maintain a joint account on Facebook (archived here). The last time an update was shared on both their X and Facebook accounts was on December 28, 2023.
In September, The ICIR reported that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) website showed former president, Muhammadu Buhari as the country’s incumbent leader, nearly four months after he left office.
The ministry replaced the image with that of the incumbent President Bola Tinubu on its website after The ICIR report.
In 2024, the country participated in several sports activities including the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the just concluded African Games in Ghana but the ministry of sports did not give updates about these sports activities via its social media handles.
Similarly, many young Nigerians achieved laudable milestones in and outside the country but they were not publicly recognised by the ministry of Youth due to their online absence.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.