Category: Special Issue

Contending Narratives on the COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Authority Governance in Nigeria

Contending Narratives on the COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Authority Governance in Nigeria

Posted by | Dec 9, 2021 |

This study interrogates the contending narratives in the fight against COVID-19 and public authority governance in Nigeria. Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2019 in Wuhan, China, countries worldwide have been battling against its exponential rise. In Nigeria, with many reported coronavirus cases, the government had responded by budgeting millions of dollars to curtail the spread of the disease and procure vaccines. However, Nigerians have questioned the responses of the public authority in the governance affairs of Coronavirus. Why is this the case? Literature on the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria has pointed out corruption, mismanagement, human rights abuses, poor planning, and the decay in the health sectors. With David Easton System Theory, the study generated data through documentary methods and analysed them using the narrative analytical technique. The article observes that while the COVID-19 pandemic has resurfaced the contending trajectories in the health, political and economic discourses, public authorities’ governance has continued to witness cycles of legitimacy crises. The study suggests that no amount of audio pledged by the government can remedy the Nigerian trajectories without addressing the public authorities’ fallout with the people and strong legislations against government officials’ foreign medical tourism.

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The Consequences of COVID-19 on Human Rights and Freedoms

The Consequences of COVID-19 on Human Rights and Freedoms

Posted by | Dec 9, 2021 |

This qualitative desktop study relied on existing literature to gain concise knowledge of the consequences of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on fundamental human rights and freedoms in Africa. Informed by the cardinal social work principles of human rights and social justice, which have their genesis in humanitarian and democratic ideals founded on such values as dignity, equality, the study highlighted the brutalities being imposed on African nationals in their countries owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study proposes recommendations to remedy these while advocating for a comprehensive human rights approach, among other measures, in responding to the pandemic.

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Pandemics and Cross-Border Trade

Pandemics and Cross-Border Trade

Posted by | Dec 9, 2021 |

This paper examines the impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) on cross-border trade and its implications on trade within and amongst African countries. Intermittent outbreaks of infectious diseases have had profound and lasting effects on societies throughout history. Using desk research, the paper argues that the COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented public health, social and economic challenges, including affecting international trade. Measures to curb the spread of the disease shut down large swathes of the global economy leading to dramatic negative supply and demand shocks. This study argues that pandemics are inherently uncertain, necessitating flexible policies in responding to outbreaks as they develop.

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Conceptions of the COVID-19 Pandemic among Religious Leaders in Nigeria: Implications for Responses and Coping Mechanisms

Conceptions of the COVID-19 Pandemic among Religious Leaders in Nigeria: Implications for Responses and Coping Mechanisms

Posted by | Dec 9, 2021 |

This qualitative study examines the concomitant relationship between the different conceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic among religious leaders in Nigeria and its implications for their various response and coping mechanisms. The study used secondary sources such as newspapers and magazines, scholarly texts, journal articles, and the internet for content analysis and conclusion. It argues that responses to COVID-19 safety rules, lockdowns and coping measures among the religious organisations, denominations and sects in Nigeria were outcomes of their conceptions or misconceptions about the disease. It was observed that while some religious leaders and followers alike dismissed COVID-19 as a farce resulting from conspiracy theories of diseases, others accepted the existence of the pandemic. The study contends that while denial of the disease led to resistance and opposition to the directives issued by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to curb the spread of the disease in the country, belief in the reality of the disease and its manifestation as an act of God resulted in a positive response to the directives passed to mitigate the pandemic. The study concludes that several religious leaders would not have devised credible coping mechanisms in the church services without the government’s enforcement of the lockdown.

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The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria’s North-East Region

The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria’s North-East Region

Posted by | Dec 9, 2021 |

Spurred by the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its spread to the northeast, an environment already devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency, the article looks at its impact on internally displaced persons (IDPs). It analyses data gathered from secondary sources and systematically juxtaposes these with reports and observations of developments in the IDP camps in the region. Major findings revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on IDPs in the study area concerning their health, particularly by worsening the challenges of access to water, sanitation and hygiene, humanitarian relief, food security, and further escalating insecurity in the region. The findings further revealed that while the government’s preventive measures helped to curb the rapid spread of the virus among the IDPs, the Boko Haram group and its affiliates exploited the lockdown to attack some communities and security forces in the north-east. In the process they killed and displaced more people than the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. This article concludes that the complex challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the already existing humanitarian crises require the synergy of efforts by federal, state, and local governments with the active support of humanitarian actors, particularly international organisations and non-governmental agencies working in the region to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on IDPs. It also underscores the urgent need for additional funding, allocation of land to build new camps to decongest the existing ones, and deployment of additional medical personnel and supplies to cater for the IDP camps in the north-eastern states of Nigeria.

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