The Political Economy of COVID- 19 in Nigeria

Abstract

The advent of Covid-19 pandemic in the global economy in the past few months has wrecked global economy due to lockdown policies which has affected economic activities. Its impact in the early post-lockdown era (from September to October, 2020) has changed the pre-formal way of life to a new normal where policies globally (WHO) exerts a significant influence on developing nations like Nigeria. Since 27th February 2020 where the first Case of Covid-19 was reported in Nigeria, the political economy of the country has witnessed a significant draw-back due to the disbandment of International and local Flight, Tourism, import and export duties, government expenditure and debts, increased unemployment, impact on the nations GDP and the politicization of relief packages during and after the lockdown. This study is aimed at investigating the political economy of Covid -19 in Nigeria. The study specifically focused on government policies during the covid-19 lockdown and the effect of these polices on the economy of Nigeria as a county and on individual wellbeing. The study adopted the exploratory design with focus on secondary data. From the discourse, it was found out that the political economy of Covid 19 rest on power relation, class struggle between the west and distribution of resource across nation states. From the discourse, recommendation were made and few of such is that, there should be an improve health or disease related technology across the globe controlled by World Health Organization to Monitor the emergence of viruses or new disease outbreak, Activities of laboratory scientist should be well regulated by WHO so that the experience of Wuhan experiment will not subsist in the near future. It was concluded that conscious or deliberate effort by African nations will internally or domestically harness the needed resources for future global challenge that may pose a threat to Africans independence and sovereignty against external intrusion in policy formulation.