Covid-19 Pandemic And Governance Issues In Nigeria: The Problem With The Solution

The Covid-19 pandemic is a calamity that urgently calls for government and governance response. Ironically, Nigeria lacks a governance structure that should work efficiently to enhance service delivery. In a weak state like Nigeria, it has become important to clear difficulties in governance. Governance as a process needs to be organized by society but controlled by the government. Governance whose process has not impacted the poor cannot be good, hence good governance has continued to erode the poor. The paper further calls for good enough governance because good governance has in itself proved inadequate. The paper attempts to clarify these entwined concepts – governance, good governance, and good enough governance – to make policies and programs of the government on Covid-19 have its expected impact on the masses. The paper uses secondary data to analyze the lack of good governance in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. It concludes that the government failed to reach out to the masses during the delivery of the palliatives and recommends, among others, the formation of a governance structure for the locals to distribute the palliatives of Covid-19.