Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the pathetic nature of the Nigeria healthcare system has become more glaring. In First World countries, the ravaging nature of the pandemic, marked by a high death toll, elicits trepidation among Nigerian citizens. What is more, these fears are not necessarily as a result of the lethal nature of COVID-19 but rather, they are consequent of certain conditions amongst which include: an inept and unconcerned leadership, accompanied by dilapidated health institutions characterized by poor working conditions and incentives. It is in lieu of these unhealthy conditions that the dreaded disease found its footing in the Nigerian environment. Against this background, this paper argues that the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria, its local dispersion occasioned by paucity of medical personnel and supplies due to decades of neglect of health care system is worrisome. This study recommends an overhaul of the healthcare system with the aim of achieving a robust health care system for Nigerian citizens. Thus far, various scholars have focused on corrupt leadership practices of Nigerian leaders without a detailed and in-depth study on the nexus between the health sector and this failure. It is this obvious gap in scholarship that this present study sets out to fill. The paper adopts a qualitative approach which will be anchored on primary and ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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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.

The escalation of the Coronavirus to other countries around the world prompted WHO to declare the virus on January 30, 2020 a public health emergency (WHO, 2020). In lieu of its quick spread and high mortality rate, the WHO termed the virus a pandemic. However, in Nigeria, efforts to contain and sensitize the populace about this pandemic were put in place, media platforms were copiously engaged by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), sensitizing the masses on the preventive measures against the coronavirus. Despite their efforts, some social media users inundated the people with fake news, 'end-time' religious teachings, rumors and misinformation about 5G ultra-waves. The dominant questions are: what roles did the different social media platforms play in information dissemination on Covid-19 in Southeast Nigeria? What were peoples' reactions to these messages? How do the people view messages from government viz-a-viz their religious leaders or other sources? Why do individuals deem it necessary to 'forward' such messages to relatives, friends and different social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook? In answering these questions, this qualitative study explores social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, blogs, online newspapers and YouTube where the contestations about the pandemic are most pronounced. This study through its finding using statistical frequencies, demonstrates that before the detection of the first victim of Covid-19 in Nigeria, the region was already agog with social media (mis)information about the pandemic causing panic among the populace followed by the frenzy need to 'forward' such messages to those in their contacts. In lieu of this, this study examines these contestations and contradictions about Covid-19 in Southeast Nigeria.

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