Problems With E-Government in Nigeria
ABSTRACT
Information technology had permeated and improved on virtually every aspect of our world today, even in the way we govern ourselves. In this paper, the concept of e-government is explained and the various ways it can be used and the benefits that are gotten from its implementation. It then goes further to explain how the unique conditions present in Nigeria have impeded the employment of e-government systems. It concludes by mentioning how these mitigating factors in Nigeria can be circumvented.
INTRODUCTION
To govern efficiently it is imperative that the governing body is able to interact as directly as possible with the party to be governed, the degree to which this is accomplished is usually indicative of the success level a government is able to achieve. Over the years governments have employed different ways to bridge the communication gap between the governed and itself. These methods include town hall meetings, mobile government units outsourcing etc. However the most successful method, when applied properly, has shown to be governments using ITC to perform its services to its citizens
Government’s use of ITC to perform services is known as e-Government. The United Nations describes e-Government as “The employment of the Internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and services to its citizens”. From the perspective of government interactions, E-government can be broken down into 5 groups, namely government to citizens (G2C), Government to Businesses(G2B), Government to Employees(G2E), Governments to Governments(G2G) and Citizens to Governments(C2G).
E-government has played an integral role in enhancing many government ability to better govern there people an example of this can be seen in the United States employment of video conferencing in the 2012 presidential election, whereby Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) was used to bring questions from ordinary citizens to the...