SIX months after leaving office as the minister of youth and sports, the image of the immediate past minister, Sunday Dare, remains on the ministry’s website, portraying him as the substantive minister, as can be seen archived here.
In September, The ICIR reported the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) website showing former President Muhammadu Buhari as the country’s incumbent leader, nearly four months after he left office.
Dare was Nigeria’s 35th sports minister. He succeeded Solomon Dalung in 2019. Both served in the Buhari-led administration.
Since he left office, the website built with tax-payers money has been denied timely information despite several sports-related engagements under the current minister, John Enoh, who assumed office in August.
The ICIR observed the last update on the website, dated June 1, 2023, with the headline “CON Award: Youth and Sport (sic) Ministry Hails Sunday Dare.” The headline clearly shows that the officer who wrote the report could not correctly write the ministry’s name.
The website’s condition also shows no one is handling it or the officer in charge has abandoned his or her job.
Not only does the website suffer from not being fed with information, The ICIR observed the ministry’s social media handles provide information that contradicts the ministry’s new name – Sports Development.
While forming his cabinet in August, President Bola Tinubu split the Ministry of Youths and Sports in two, namely Sports Development and Youth Development.
The ICIR also observed that the uniform resource locator (URL) of the (old ministry’s) website remains as Youth and Sports.
Failure to publish information on the activities of Youth and Sports Development’s website and social media handles has limited the ministry’s interaction with the public.
The ICIR contacted the ministry’s director of press, Mohammed Manga, to seek his reactions to the findings.
He said he was at an event when the reporter reached him on the telephone
” I am at an event. Can we talk later?” he said.
Subsequent attempts to speak with him proved abortive as he did not respond to calls before filing this report.
NOTE: The headline and first paragraph were updated to reflect 6 and not 7 months as initially stated.