THE IMPLICATIONS AND IMPACT OF COVID -19 PREVENTIVE MEASURES IN NIGERIA: A CASE OF PORT-HARCOURT CITY AND OBIO/AKPOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN RIVERS STATE (MARCH 2020 – AUGUST 2020)

Abstract

The paper x-rayed the historic origin of COVID -19 and the circumstances that surrounded its spread to almost all nations in the world. The devastating effect of the virus cannot be overemphasized; it has grounded global economy to the extent that it will take some nations centuries to recover from the effect, with an unimaginable number of deaths. The corona virus was first noticed and recorded on 31st December, 2019 in Wahu, a city in China. On 11th March, 2020. As a result of its speedy spread and devastating effect to humanity, World Health Organization (WHO) declared the corona virus a global pandemic. The world Health Organization quickly swung into action on how the deadly disease can be controlled with precautionary measures that was adopted worldwide to combat the spread of the virus. Nigeria followed WHO's preventive measures with total adherence and added other stringent measures without recourse to the Nigerian peculiarities and uniqueness thereby leading to excruciating, pathetic condition of the masses that are not only vulnerable to hunger and insecurity but also susceptible to death by installment and other adverse impact on the economy. The federal government declared lockdown in Lagos, Ogun states and Abuja. State governments through their governors declared other precautionary measures in their respective states. The paper made use of structural functionalist theory and collected data through primary and secondary sources. The implication of the preventive measures to the people of Rivers state in Port Harcourt and its environs formed the thesis of this paper. The perception of the people about the pandemic and the impact of the COVID-19 to the people were analyzed. It discovered that government lacked good policy formulation and implementation to fight and control the pandemic, it showed that Nigerian health sector is fragile and plagued with inadequacies. Government palliative measures were not commensurate to cushion the effect of pandemic to the people. Stakeholders and actors used corona virus as a conduit to appropriate wealth for themselves. There was no uniformity of actions and data from agencies and ministries. Conclusively the paper made recommendations on way forward, which includes the use of our natural and medical clinical research and personnel in finding a cure for it just as Madagascar did. Furthermore, there is need to upgrade our health sector, policy experts and technocrats on policy formulation be consulted to come up with good policies among others.