Vincent Chukwukadibia Onwughalu
Department of Public Administration
Federal Polytechnic, Oko Anambra State, Nigeria
vincent.onwughalu@federalpolyoko.edu.ng
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the lockdown of the global economy in the early part of 2020. In line with the measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), countries also introduced further mechanisms based on their respective unique environment to contain the virus. This paper is a reflection on the containment of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Specifically, it reviews the government’s actions towards combating the virus and how these impact citizens’ perceptions of the virus and informed their reactions towards precautionary measures and safety regulation respectively. The study is qualitative, and as such, it relied on secondary data that were analyzed through content analysis. The major finding of the study is that government’s approach to containing the virus contributes to: (i) the doubt on the existence of the virus in the country held by some of its citizens, (ii) the lack of strict observation of precautionary measures and safety regulations instituted by the government to contain the virus, (iii) the seeming non-co-operation between the government and the citizens on ways to contain the virus. The paper concludes that to contain the virus effectively, the government must change its approach to gain the citizens’ confidence, in order to elicit their commitment and co-operation. Therefore, it suggests that government should explore ways to harness indigenous claims of antidote to the virus, co-ordinate local inventions in terms of production and manufacture of protective equipment, drive vigorous enlightenment and education on citizens taking ownership of safety and precautionary measures as well as communicate them in dialects they understand, enforce change in the attitude of government’s officials in observing and implementing safety and precautionary measures, etc.
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria, Government, Containing, Citizens, Safety, Precautionary measures and regulations