fail to build site using hugo v0.88.1 - nil pointer evaluating navigation.Page.Params

[maiatoday]

I followed instructions in the readme and go the theme working on an older version of hugo. however I updated my hugo recently and the site won't build. Below is the error. it is a minimal hugo site with just the theme added. I updated because github actions use this version of hugo

hugo v0.88.1+extended darwin/amd64 BuildDate=unknown
WARN 2021/09/12 22:02:52 Page.URL is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Use .Permalink or .RelPermalink. If what you want is the front matter URL value, use .Params.url
ERROR 2021/09/12 22:02:52 render of "page" failed: execute of template failed: template: _default/single.html:10:3: executing "header" at <partial "header.html" .>: error calling partial: "/Users/maia/workspace/gdg/devfest-za/themes/devfest-theme-hugo/layouts/partials/header.html:27:27": execute of template failed: template: partials/header.html:27:27: executing "partials/header.html" at <.Page.Params>: nil pointer evaluating navigation.Page.Params
ERROR 2021/09/12 22:02:52 render of "page" failed: execute of template failed: template: _default/single.html:10:3: executing "header" at <partial "header.html" .>: error calling partial: "/Users/maia/workspace/gdg/devfest-za/themes/devfest-theme-hugo/layouts/partials/header.html:27:27": execute of template failed: template: partials/header.html:27:27: executing "partials/header.html" at <.Page.Params>: nil pointer evaluating navigation.Page.Params
ERROR 2021/09/12 22:02:52 render of "section" failed: execute of template failed: template: team/list.html:10:3: executing "header" at <partial "header.html" .>: error calling partial: "/Users/maia/workspace/gdg/devfest-za/themes/devfest-theme-hugo/layouts/partials/header.html:27:27": execute of template failed: template: partials/header.html:27:27: executing "partials/header.html" at <.Page.Params>: nil pointer evaluating navigation.Page.Params
ERROR 2021/09/12 22:02:52 render of "taxonomy" failed: execute of template failed: template: taxonomy/list.html:10:3: executing "header" at <partial "header.html" .>: error calling partial: "/Users/maia/workspace/gdg/devfest-za/themes/devfest-theme-hugo/layouts/partials/header.html:27:27": execute of template failed: template: partials/header.html:27:27: executing "partials/header.html" at <.Page.Params>: nil pointer evaluating navigation.Page.Params
Error: Error building site: failed to render pages: render of "page" failed: execute of template failed: template: _default/single.html:10:3: executing "header" at <partial "header.html" .>: error calling partial: "/Users/maia/workspace/gdg/devfest-za/themes/devfest-theme-hugo/layouts/partials/header.html:27:27": execute of template failed: template: partials/header.html:27:27: executing "partials/header.html" at <.Page.Params>: nil pointer evaluating navigation.Page.Params
Built in 30 ms