COVID-19 and Good Governance in Nigeria: Lessons from Europe and Asia.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VII, July 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

COVID-19 and Good Governance in Nigeria: Lessons from Europe and Asia

Omosefe Oyekanmi
Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER)

Abstract: The COVID-19 Pandemic has continued to have, in its trail, seismic effects which cut across all stratum and sectors of human endeavor across the globe. While many studies have emerged in the medical and scientific fields regarding the causes, effects and nature of the coronavirus disease, studies aimed at understanding and unraveling the political, social and economic factors, impacts and trajectories of the disease are still unclear and gradually emerging. Therefore, this study has the aim of generally contributing to the debate and the findings on the socio-political and economic causes, impacts and effects of the virus across geographical spaces and within political delineations. Specifically, the available data on the spread and morbidity of COVID-19 across the different regions and states presents a myriad of picture which are in need of interpretation. Importantly this study shall examine the question of whether good governance had effect on the containment and the spread of COVID-19 as well as the rate of morbidity in Europe and Asia and the lessons Nigeria can learn from it.

I. INTRODUCTION

It is noteworthy that the gradual emergence of China, India in addition to the East Asian industrialized economies[apart from Japan] had largely contributed to the obsolescence of the ‘Fukuyaman’ thesis of The End of History(Fukuyama, 1990). Indeed, the thesis had been constructed to interpret the ascendance and dominance of the capitalist west led by the United States and Western Europeover the defunct communist Soviet Union, thereby leading to the emergence of a unipolar world.

However, as it shall be later shown in the course of the study, the last thirty years since the collapse of the walls of Berlin had seen the industrial power and clout move from the West to the East. This shift of manufacturing power and industrial dexterity would have significant effect on the ability and preparedness of states to battle COVID 19. Indeed the image of crates of protective masks being snatched on airport tarmacs due to competition between United States and European Union countries, as reported by the NewYorkTimes (Bradly, 2020), in order to acquire china-made personal protective medical equipment, among other things, had shown that the world had moved from the upbeat-fukuyaman-unipolar triumphalism to a humbling bipolarity dominated by power centres of United States and Europe on one side and China and Asia on the other side.

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