Covid-19 pandemic and socio-economic wellbeing of Nigerians

Abstract

The study is on covid-19 pandemic and socio-economic wellbeing of Nigerians. It is premised on the fact that, the rapid spread of the virus increased drastically and constituted enormous challenges to socio-economic activities as its containment strategies interfered with individuals’ daily lives and led to severe economic loss in employment, basic needs and social disruption in educational system of Nigerians despite the directive of ministry of education to learn from home teaching method. Specifically, the paper aimed to ascertain the impact of covid-19 pandemic on education, employment in Nigeria and the satisfaction of basic needs of Nigerian citizens. Data for the study were derived from secondary sources. Notably, it involved content analysis of information gleaned from journals, textbooks, newspapers, web pages and government documents among others. Securitization theory was used as the theoretical framework of the analysis. The findings show that, the-educational system was disrupted as the directives to learn from home could not be effectively complied with by both teachers and students due to the infrastructural deficit such as poor internet connectivity, non-possession of relevant devices like laptops and smart phones and unstable power supply necessary to operate virtual classes, There was also loss of employment because organizations had to either close or scale back operations, and Nigerians, especially the low-income earners could not meet their basic needs because supply could not meet demand and many could not even afford the skyrocketing prices of the few available commodities. The study recommends among other things that: government provide solar powered educational devices, pre-loaded with off-line academic resources especially to the vulnerable communities and disadvantaged students.