The outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has seriously impacted negatively on the socio-economic and political activities in the international system. The pandemic has exposed the leadership capacities and health investments cum preparedness of countries across the globe. This paper studies the reactions and responses of nations in containing the deadly virus and observes that while Western nations react rapidly and more proactively, African nations seem to be caught in a web of religious prevarications and State fragility which has impugned on the efforts of States in containing the virus. The paper argues that the Nigerian government’s response so far in containing the virus is indicative of State fragility and that the prevailing perception of the virus as eschatological and nihilistic among the citizens, especially the very religious ones, may further obfuscate and mar government’s efforts in containing the virus. The paper will show how the government’s approach engenders a dire socioeconomic complication which may have more disastrous effects on the political economy of post Covid-19 Nigeria and suggested ways forward.

From the 1980s, Nigeria's economy has witnessed severe stagnation. While Eurocentric literature pinpoint the Nigerian civil war and her leaders' corruptive tendency as the prima facie, Afrocentric literatures trace the country's economic woes to her historical processes of colonial domination and economic exploitation. Nevertheless, none of the above arguments underpin more firmly as being the catalyst to the country's economic dysfunction especially when compared to IMF policies in the country. This paper in part, demonstrates that IMF policies in Nigeria vis-a-vis its Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) through its Loan Conditionality is "the crux impediment facing the country." As such, the paper argues that the acceptance of IMF loans during General Ibrahim Babangida's among other misgovernance administration perpetuated the economic woes and fostered the backwardness of the country. Employing primary and secondary sources, the paper posits that a more inclusive economic system devoid of the current extractive economic policies would revitalize its fortunes.

No abstract