Case Report - (2021) Volume 13, Issue 3
1Department of Mass Communication, Edwin Clark University, Delta State, Nigeria
2Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nige
3Department of Communication Arts, Ignatius Ajulu University of Education, Rivers State, Nigeria
Received Date: March 03, 2021; Accepted Date: March 19, 2021; Published Date: March 26, 2021
Citation: Mirian OC, Danjuma YM, Amaonyeze NB (2021) Impact of Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic on Social Lives and Interactions of Nigerian Citizens. Arch Med Vol.13 No.3:15
The coronavirus disease is a communicable and contagious respiratory disease that has not only affected human social lives, interactions and relationships but has equally changed other significant patterns and aspects of people’s normal life, even after the global lockdown. Nigerians, during and after the lockdown caused by COVID-19 are behaviourally influenced and affected by the novel virus. Thus, this study sought to investigate how COVID-19 pandemic has affected social lifestyle and interactions of Nigerians. The main objectives of this study were to ascertain how COVID-19 pandemic affected human communication and interactions; people’s social lifestyles and activities; people’s movement and transportation; the education system in Nigeria and house hold welfare or economy of Nigerians. The study adopted descriptive survey design with questionnaire and published materials on COVID-19 as instruments for data collection. Nigerians aged 18 years and above were studied through an online questionnaire survey which was distributed through social media platforms, emails and professional networks between 10th and 30th January, 2021. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the five most affected COVID-19 States in Nigeria in the year 2020 A total of 400 Nigerian participants completed the structured validated Likert-Scale questionnaire that assessed the impacts of COVID-19 on people’s social lives, interactions and welfare. Data were analyzed using 4-point like rt scale in descending order of SA, A, D and SD with mean and standard deviation to determine the level of responses. Major findings revealed that COVID-19 negatively affected the lives of people, ranging from lack of face-to-face communication and interaction, to change in people’s social welfare and lifestyle, to halt in education and academic activities, restriction in movement and transportation and household welfare challenges. It is suggested that policymakers should intensify efforts to ensure that corona virus is completely eradicated by providing and making COVID-19 drugs and vaccines available to all Nigerians. Government should ensure strict compliance to PTF directives on wearing of facemask by all Nigerians.
Keywords
Corona Virus; Pandemic; Effect; Social lives; Human interactions; Citizens; Nigeria
Introduction
Man, as a social being interacts with one another on daily basis and depends on communication for his continual existence and survival. Even in business organizations, people interact with each other because human beings make up part of the organization [1]. Other resources of the business cannot be properly coordinated without effective communication between and among personnel of the organization [1]. Hence, communication or interaction and other social activities like exercising (walk out), working, travelling, business operations have become indispensable in man’s daily activities. Communication is an indispensable component in human lives and existence and no society has been known to exist without it. However, the presence of any outbreak or pandemic poses a threat to human existence and inversely affects his social live, interactions and relationships. Such pandemic is the novel corona virus popularly known as COVID-19.
Coronavirus pandemic is one of the recent pandemic outbreaks that has impacted the way in which people used to live. COVID-19 belongs to the family of viruses that cause such sicknesses as cold, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), with symptoms such as sore throat, cough, runny nose, fever, tiredness, body aches and difficulty breathing, manifesting between 2 to 14 days after one is exposed to it [2].
COVID-19 which was discovered in China is genetically closely related to the SARS-CoV-1 virus which caused thousands of deaths in the year 2002 [3]. Shereen et al. [4] opined that COVID-19 is a highly transmittable and pathogenic viral disease that is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV- 2). The corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak first occurred in Wuhan city of China in December, 2019. Initially it was generally believed to be a disease peculiar to Chinese but the pandemic started spreading swiftly from person to person and subsequently to different parts of the world [5].
Sequel to the rapid spread of the virus in China, the Chinese authority on January 7, 2020 declared the isolation of the virus [6]. Subsequently, the World Health Organization on January 12, 2020 named the virus COVID-19 and by February 12, 2020, a total of 43,103 COVID-19 confirmed cases and 1,018 deaths had been reported by the organization [2]. This being the case, the World health Organization on the 11th of March 2020 declared corona virus outbreak a global pandemic based on the increased rate at which the virus spread in different parts of the world, thus, causing global health threat [2]. Corona virus is now known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
Nigeria was not left out from the COVID-19 pandemic, as the country recorded its first case of COVID-19 on the 27th of February, 2020 from a male foreigner who came to Nigeria through Lagos State international airport. This indexed case was male foreigner from Milan, Italy (the fourth country with high incidence of 371 cases as at February, 2020) who works with the multinational, Lafarge Cement Company at Ogun State and came for a meeting at the company’s factory at Ewekoro Ogun which is a neighbouring State to Lagos State. It was there that the foreigner exhibited some symptoms of sickness and was taken to Lafarge’s medical centre in Ewekoro for testing and was confirmed COVID-19 positive (Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, 2020). On the 9th of March 2020, the second case of the virus was reported in Ewekoro, Ogun State, and a Nigerian who had contact with the Italian citizen [7]. Thereafter, more and increased cases were discovered on daily basis in different parts of the country increased date rates that necessitated remedial strategy by government.
In order to stem the tide of the pandemic, Nigeria, just like other countries such China, UAS, Italy, France, Britain adopted and implemented the national lockdown strategy and social distancing on the 27th March, 2020. Subsequently, the Nigerian government placed a travel ban on 13 countries with high rate of the pandemic. These countries are: The United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, China, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Japan and Iran. It was on March 30, 2020 that the ban of all local and international flights into and out of Nigeria took effect [8].
However, the lockdown measures, while necessary to minimize loss of life and danger posed by the disease created significant economic anxieties, with adverse consequences on human social lives and activities, food security and hunger, social and household welfare. In most cases, the lockdown order led to travel ban, closure of schools and offices, working from home, as people were strictly warned to stay at home, maintain proper hygiene and maintaining social distancing of 1.5 metre from another person [7]. It is therefore certain that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown would have uncountable consequences on people’s social life, their interaction general activities.
The social impacts of corona virus and the actions taken to reduce its spread are severe, such that the circumstances has resulted in a unique situation in which people had to change their routine lifestyles, their activity patterns, the way they work and how they travel which are three facets of daily life [9]. Based on the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in global lockdown, it became imperative to understand how people living in Nigeria were affected, especially in their social lifestyle, communication patterns and interactions and their overall welfare.
Statement of the Problem
Man is a social being, who interacts with and depends on one another for his continual existence and survival. Hence, communication, movement and travelling, working and schooling have become indispensable part of man’s daily activities. However, the presence of any outbreak or pandemic becomes a threat to human existence and inversely affects his social live, contacts and relationships. Coronavirus is one of the recent pandemic outbreaks that have impacted the way in which people used to live. The outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria has in one way or the other affected many Nigerians and their daily activities. It is therefore, against this backdrop that this study seeks to investigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the social lives and interactions of Nigerian citizens.
Objectives of the Study
The study was guided by the following objectives:
1. To ascertain how COVID-19 pandemic affected human communication and interaction
2. To determine effect of the pandemic on people’s social lifestyles and activities
3. To ascertain how the pandemic affected people’s movement and transportation
4. To ascertain effect of the pandemic on education system in Nigeria
5. To determine the effect of the pandemic on house hold welfare or economy
Literature Review
COVID-19 and its effect
The global and local effect of COVID-19 pandemic has been well predicted. The pandemic brought about global lockdown and social distancing that had serious outcome on world economy, people’s social lives, activities and interactions, jobs, education, transportation and general welfare of the people. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a de-globalization process, which has forced countries to close their borders, leading to restriction of goods and services between countries, capital flow and closure of business and production [10].
In Nigeria, the increased rate at which the pandemic spread was such a health threat that necessitated the pronouncement of the Nigerian minister of public health that total of 4641 COVID-19 cases have been tested positive with 150 deaths recorded as at May 11, 2020 [8]. However, these figures were not the actual figures of the real situation in Nigeria, based on the fact that COVID-19 testing was not carried out on every Nigerian. As at May 25, 2020, there was a total of 7839 COVID-19 confirmed cases and 226 deaths in Nigeria [2,8]. However, at the global level, WHO report showed that there was a total of 5 267 419 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as at 25 May 2020 with a total of 341 155 deaths as a result of the virus (WHO, 2020).
The increased fatality rates of COVID-19 at both national and global level is a cause for alarm especially when compared to the earlier month of April when Nigeria had a total 1095 confirmed cases with 32 deaths while at the global level, there was 2,710,948 confirmed cases with only 187 844 deaths (WHO, 2020). Ebenso & Out [7] stressed that the number of COVID-19 cases continued to increase based on the fact that no approved treatment has been discovered for the virus. Hence, as at August 31st 2020, WHO report showed that a total of 24, 854, 140 COVID-19 confirmed cases and 838, 924 deaths were recorded globally while a total of 54,008 and 1013 deaths was recorded in Nigeria.
The prevalence of coronavirus has caused people to reconsider many aspects of life, such that the way human move and sell will change greatly in the future, and special measures in the field of transportation and shopping and livestock sales will be applied to prevent the spread of virus and other infectious diseases [11]. The implications of COVID-19 in the political, economic, social and cultural domains and its consequent psychological effect is not yet clear, however, its effects would undoubtedly be widespread [12]. Several businesses and corporations around the world have been severely and negatively impacted by the outbreak, while emerging economies have suffered gross setback [13]. Similarly, many businesses and offices have been shut down and their staffs were asked to work from home [14]. Working from home through isolated interactions became the new normal for many career professionals in many parts of the world [13].
COVID-19 and people’s lifestyles and activities
Result of a Chinese’s study on the Impact of COVID-19 on mental health-related lifestyle changes showed that 67.7% of participants reported that they were paying more attention to their mental health following the pandemic. Also, 62.0% of participants reported that they were spending more time to rest. The majority of participants (64.2%) stated that they were spending more time to relax while more than half of the participants (59.7%) reported that they were spending more time exercising. Age group was associated with lifestyle changes among participants. Participants aged 18-30, 31-40 and >50 years were reported to have spent significantly more time relaxing groups [15].
COVID-19 and social live and household welfare
Result of a China based survey on the Impact of COVID-19 on Social and Family Support showed that majority of participants reported that they received increased support from friends (64.6%) and increased support from family members (63.9%). The majority also experienced an increased shared feeling with family members (57.8%), increased shared feelings with others when feeling blue (62.4%), and increased caring for family members’ feelings (77.9%). However, participants aged between 41-50 years were less likely to have experienced increased support from friends, increased support from family members, increased shared feelings with family members, increased shared feelings with others when they felt blue, and increased caring for family members’ feelings than those in other age groups [15].
The COVID-19 pandemic also intensified the uncertainty by causing massive disruption in the lives of people around the world [16]. The situation, which was not imagined in the past, is happening in today’s world where majority of the world population live life under the curfew, fear, panic buying, closure of businesses, factories and educational institutions.
More so, an Indian based study found that US jobless claims are increasing at a rapid rate as the number of American people filing for unemployment hits a record high by signalling an end of an ever-expanding decade for world’s largest economy. Sidhu et al. found that the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on different industries is unimaginable, and it will continually disrupt the world economy until its prevention vaccine comes in the market and given to at least half of the population [17].
As Sidhu et al. observed, the pandemic resulted in loss of jobs in all industries and has a broader impact than the recession in the year 2008. The most affected industries are hotels, travel, transport, oil, entertainment, real estate, construction and advertising. For instance, in US alone, hotel Industry projected to lose $3.5 billion/week and around 6.5 million jobs out of 8.3 million total hotel jobs by looking at the COVID-19 growth at present Sidhu et al. As the pandemic continued, it has a direct effect on workers and their levels of productivity. Quarantined workers, for instance, cannot be productive [18].
COVID-19 and people’s movement and transportation
Sidhu et al. observed that more than 100 countries have travel restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected the travel industry the most. Their data analysis from Flight Radar 24 showed that the number of flights over the world has seen significant fallout. Industries in the transportation and tourism sector have experienced a decrease in productivity as everyone must completely stay at home [19].
Empirical review
The global COVID-19 pandemic has trapped economic activities, schools are shut down, places of worship have been deserted, international flights have been very limited, if not completely stopped, there is a near total lockdown as people are encouraged to stay at home [20]. Governments of countries have placed restrictions on movement both locally and internationally while Peoples’ sources of livelihood have been threatened.
Studies on the impacts of COVID-19 global pandemic on social life, interaction, and human activities have been conducted around the world [21,22]. The recent COVID-19 epidemic has generated much scholarly concerns in different parts of the world and researchers have continued to assess its global impact on different areas [23-25]. Some assessed the impact of the global pandemic on household welfare [26] others evaluated its impact on organizations [27,28] and people’s daily life [21,22].
Empirical evidences on the impact of disease outbreak in the past have recorded diverse ways through which such outbreaks affect people’s social life and interactions. A Netherland study found that 80% of people reduced their outdoors activities; that 44% of workers started or increased the amount of hours working from home and 30% have more remote meetings; that Students and school pupils, however, are mostly not happy with following education from home; the amount of trips and distance travelled dropped by 55% and 68% respectively when compared to the fall of 2019.
The above finding however, revealed that 27% of home-workers expect to work from home more often in the future and 20% of people will cycle and walk more and 20% expect to fly less in the future. These findings show that the coronavirus crisis might result in structural behavioural changes [9]. On the contrary, Yezli, et al. [29] noted that even after the COVID-19 pandemic, social interactions continued among the population of Saudi Arabia, especially in the evenings, which ultimately required authorities to declare a partial curfew to restrict movement. Therefore, based on the above studies and coupled with the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on a global level, this paper fills a gap in understanding of how COVID-19 pandemic affected the social life, interaction and general welfare of people living in Nigeria.
Theoretical framework
This study was anchored on two theories: the social theory and the information processing theory. Firstly, the social theory is considered relevant to the study because it addresses alternative forms of societal organization, the relationship of knowledge; the nature of COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship to society. The social theory is also linked to this study because it tends to address the social context of human actions, taking cognizance of the fact that people’s actions and beliefs are generally shaped by social structure and communication system. Secondly, the study is linked to the information processing theory because information dissemination during a pandemic is paramount. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it a number of conspiracy theories, misleading information and fake news. Following from this, it has become imperative for the public to distinguish between what is fake and what is reliable source of information.
Methodology
The area of this study is Nigeria. Nigeria is the most populated African country, which according to WHO [30] recorded the second highest cases of COVID-19 in Africa. The population of Nigeria is 206.1 million (United Nations Population Fund, 2020). The social impacts of corona virus and the actions taken to reduce its spread are severe, such that the circumstances has resulted in a unique situation in which people had to change their routine lifestyles, their activity patterns, the way they work and how they travel which are three facets of daily life. This study, thus, sought to ascertain how COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s social lifestyle and interactions in Nigeria. Nigerians aged 18 years and above were studied through an online questionnaire survey which was distributed through social media platforms, emails and professional networks between January 10th and 30th 2021.
The study adopted the descriptive survey design, while questionnaire and published materials on COVID-19 were the instruments for data collection. Primary data on COVID-19 were collected through the use of structured Like rt Scale questionnaire, which were calculated on a scale of descending order of SA, A, D and SD, while secondary data were collected through published literature on COVID-19. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the most affected COVID-19 States in Nigeria in the year 2020 which were Lagos State, Kano Sate, Oyo State, Rivers State and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja (NCDC, 2020).
According to National Bureau of Statistics [31] the 2016 projected population figure of these four COVID-19 affect States including FCT was 44,336,404. From the population figure of 44,336,404, a sample size of 400 was obtained using Taro Yamani formula as follows:
N=N/1+N (e)2
Where:
n = Sample size
N = The population under study
1 = Constant
e = The margin error
The established sample size was calculated thus:
n=44,336,404/1+44336,404 (0.05)2
44,336,404/1+44336,404 (0.0025)
= 44,336,404/1+ 110,841.01
= 44,336,404/ 110,842.01
n=399.9 which is approximately 400
:. n=400
Thus, the 400 participants were selected based on their knowledge of the subject matter and their ability to access, understand and respond to internet-based messaging. This study, thus, relied on online questionnaire that were distributed through email, social media and professional networks between 10th and 30th January, 2021 to the residents of Lago State, Kano State, Oyo State, Rivers State and Abuja. The participants completed a structured validated questionnaire that assessed the negative effects of COVID-19 on people’s social lives, communication and interaction, lifestyle changes, movement and transportation, social and household welfare. The online questionnaire addressed the demographic characteristics of the respondent and the core objectives of the study, which is the effect of COVID-19 on Social lives and interaction of Nigerian citizens.
Formal introductory letter accompanied the online questionnaire that was sent to the participants. The participants were made to understand that participation was voluntary and there were no consequences for non-participation. Confidentiality was maintained by protecting the specific identity of the respondents in the study instrument. However, secondary data on COVID-19 in Nigeria were obtained from Nigerian Newspapers and official website of Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control (https://COVID19. ncdc.gov.ng/).
Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data obtained through questionnaire. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 was used to carry out analysis. Data were analyzed using 4-point likert scale in descending order of SA, A, D and SD with mean and standard deviation to determine the level of responses.
Results
Four hundred (400) copies of the questionnaire were distributed to 400 respondents through online platforms and fortunately the entire questionnaire was retrieved. Analysis was therefore, done based on how the questionnaire items helped to achieve the research objectives.
Table 1 above shows the demographic distribution of the respondents. It can be observed that female gender constitutes 65% of the sex distribution. The table also shows that ages between 38-47 years have the highest respondents with 25% of the distribution. The lowest age distribution of respondent is the 58 years above age bracket with 13%.
| No. | Variables | Respondents’ Distribution | Valid Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gender | Male | 35% |
| Female | 65% | ||
| 2 | Age | 18-27 | 18% |
| 28-37 | 23% | ||
| 38-47 | 25% | ||
| 48-57 | 21% | ||
| 58 and above | 13% | ||
| 3 | Marital Status | Single | 32% |
| Married | 56% | ||
| Divorced | 9% | ||
| Widowed | 3% | ||
| 4 | Religion | Christianity | 63% |
| Islamic | 31% | ||
| Others | 6% | ||
| 5 | Educational Background | No formal Education | 0% |
| Primary Education | 0% | ||
| Secondary Education | 12% | ||
| Tertiary Education | 88% |
Table 1: Demographic distribution of respondents.
Further, the table also shows that 56% of the respondents are married with 63% of the sample being Christians. As regards educational background, 88% of the respondents have attended tertiary institutions. There are no respondents without formal education.
Table 2 above showed the distribution of the respondents based on their responses to how COVID-19 pandemic affected human communication and interaction, with all the responses being positive as they were above the mean cut off of 2.5, except for item 7 that had a negative response as their mean 1.95 which was below 2.5. The most positive response had a mean score of 4.44 indicating that COVID-19 brought about mandatory house arrest, and the least positive response was decreased shared feelings and care with family members due to the pandemic with a mean score of 2.57. Despite the one disagreed response, majority of the responses agreed and were positive. Therefore, the result indicates that COVID-19 pandemic affected human communication and interaction.
| No. | Items | Respondents’ Mean | SD | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | COVID-19 caused social distancing and no interaction | 3.3890 | 0.61582 | Agreed |
| 2 | COVID-19 brought about mandatory house arrest. | 4.4000 | 0.74357 | Agreed |
| 3 | COVID-19 caused lack of face-to-face communication | 3.8543 | 0.53021 | Agreed |
| 4 | COVID-19 caused no direct contact between family, friends and colleagues | 3.1482 | 0.42774 | Agreed |
| 5 | There was decreased shared feelings and care with family members due to the pandemic | 2.5767 | 0.39234 | Agreed |
| 6 | The pandemic brought self-isolation which led to frustration and depression | 3.0355 | 0.54479 | Agreed |
| 7 | COVID-19 increased boredom due to inadequate activities | 1.9523 | 0.42283 | Disagreed |
| 8 | It affected everyday activities such as strolling, shopping and visiting friends and family | 2.7440 | 0.57089 | Agreed |
* The acceptance mean point for the items was 2.50, any mean (x ?) that is 2.50 and above is agreed indicating a general agreement and below 2.50 is disagreed regarded as a non-consensus.
Table 2: Mean score on responses on how COVID-19 pandemic affected human communication and interaction.
Table 3 above showed the distribution of the respondents based on their response to how COVID-19 pandemic affected people’s social welfare, with opinions all positive indicating a general agreement. The most positive response had a mean score of 4.20 which indicates that COVID-19 led to loss of jobs due to closure of companies, factories, organizations etc. and the least positive response was the lack of finance to cater for family members with a mean score of 3.15.
| No. | Item | Respondents’ Mean | SD | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | COVID-19 led to loss of jobs due to closure of companies, factories, organizations etc | 4.2010 | .81225 | Agreed |
| 2 | It caused retrenchment of employees leading to hunger and poverty | 3.3015 | .90035 | Agreed |
| 3 | Lack of finance to cater for family members | 3.1558 | 1.01418 | Agreed |
| 4 | It brought about “work from home” syndrome leading to low productivity | 3.7065 | 1.10027 | Agreed |
* The acceptance mean point for the items was 2.50, any mean (x ?) that is 2.50 and above is agreed indicating a general agreement and below 2.50 is disagreed regarded as a non-consensus,
Source: Field Work (2021)
Table 3: Mean score on responses on how COVID-19 pandemic affected people’s social welfare.
Table 4 above showed the distribution of the respondents based on how COVID-19 pandemic affected teaching and learning with all the responses having a positive opinion. The most positive response had a mean score of 3.19 which indicates that that the pandemic stalled academic activities at all levels of education and the least positive response was that the pandemic reduced students’ interest in academic activities with a mean score of 2.53. The result implied that COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected teaching and learning in Nigeria.
| No. | Items | Respondents’ Mean | SD | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The pandemic stalled academic activities at all levels of education | 3.1960 | 1.01418 | Agreed |
| 2 | It led to loss of an academic year | 2.9950 | 1.10027 | Agreed |
| 3 | It reduced students’ interest in academic activities | 2.5385 | 1.09218 | Agreed |
* The acceptance mean point for the items was 2.50, any mean (x ?) that is 2.50 and above is agreed indicating a general agreement and below 2.50 is disagreed regarded as a non-consensus.
Source: Field Work (2021)
Table 4: Mean score on responses on how COVID-19 pandemic affected teaching and learning.
Table 5 above showed the distribution of the respondents based on how COVID-19 pandemic affected people’s movement and transportation with all the responses having a positive opinion. The most positive response had a mean score of 3.10 which indicates that that the pandemic led to financial loss on the part of drivers and transport owners and the least positive response was it led to reduction in passenger number thereby increasing transportation cost with a mean score of 2.74. With this result we can conclude that COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected people’s movement and transportation.
| No. | Items | Respondents’ Mean | SD | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The pandemic caused restriction in movement | 3.0955 | 0.66977 | Agreed |
| 2 | It led to closure of transportation companies and airlines | 3.0980 | 0.86623 | Agreed |
| 3 | It led to financial loss on the part of drivers and transport owners | 3.1005 | 0.72774 | Agreed |
| 4 | It led to reduction in passenger number thereby increasing transportation cost | 2.7462 | 0.86944 | Agreed |
* The acceptance mean point for the items was 2.50, any mean (x ?) that is 2.50 and above is agreed indicating a general agreement and below 2.50 is disagreed regarded as a non-consensus,
Table 5: Mean score on responses on how COVID-19 pandemic affected people’s movement and transportation.
Table 6 above showed the distribution of the respondents based on their response to how COVID-19 pandemic affected household welfare, with all the responses being positive as they were above the mean cut off of 2.5, except for item 3 that had a negative response as it has a mean of 2.19 which was below 2.5. The most positive response had a mean score of 3.54 indicating that the pandemic reduced income inflow in families, and the least positive response was that it led to poor feeding habits with a mean score of 2.99. Despite the one disagreed response, majority of the responses agreed and were positive. Therefore, the result indicates that COVID-19 pandemic affected people’s household welfare significantly.
| No. | Items | Respondents’ Mean | SD | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The pandemic reduced income inflow in families | 3.5477 | 0.81225 | Agreed |
| 2 | It increased poverty rate | 3.2462 | 0.90035 | Agreed |
| 3 | It increased household consumption due to sit at home mandate | 2.1960 | 1.01418 | Disagreed |
| 4 | It led to poor feeding habits | 2.9950 | 1.10027 | Agreed |
| 5 | It led to loss of jobs which increased depression and frustration | 3.1985 | 1.09218 | Agreed |
* The acceptance mean point for the items was 2.50, any mean (x ?) that is 2.50 and above is agreed indicating a general agreement and below 2.50 is disagreed regarded as a non-consensus.
Table 6: Mean score on responses on how COVID-19 pandemic affected people’s household welfare.
Discussion
From data gathered and analysis made, it was discovered that COVID-19 pandemic affected human communication and interaction. This finding was confirmed by all the items in Table 2 which were all answered in the affirmative above the threshold of 2.50 mean, except item 7 that was answered in the negative with mean below 2.50. The implication of this finding was that COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 brought about lack of face-toface communication between family, friends and colleagues, social distancing and mandatory house arrest and self-isolation that invariably lead to led to frustration and depression, and undoubtedly affected people’s daily activities like shopping and visiting friends and families. This finding corroborates the findings of Tull et al., Cao et al. and that of Faber et al. [9,21,22].
Findings also showed that COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected people’s social welfare. This was confirmed by all the items in Table 3 which had positive responses indicating a general agreement to the statement with a total mean score of 3.59 which is above 2.50. This finding implied that as a result of COVID-19 of 2020, many factories, companies and organizations were closed which led to loss of job by many employees and untold hunger and poverty as well as “work from home” syndrome that let to low work productivity. This finding corroborated the assertion of scholars that Corporate organizations face many challenges leading to firms laying off staff. Thus, employee lay-offs resulted in loss of labour income which further translates into lower consumption of goods and services (KPMG, 2020, Price Water house Coopers, 2020 cited in Otuya, 2020). Also, Price Water house Coopers found that there was a 42% decrease in workforce productivity in the first three months following the outbreak of the virus in Nigeria.
More so, the findings revealed that that COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected teaching and learning in Nigeria. All the statements in Table 3 which generated positive responses confirmed that the pandemic negatively affected teaching and learning by halting academic activities which led to loss of academic year and reduction of students’ interest in academic activities. The overall mean score of 2.90 which is higher than calculated mean of 2.50 with a standard deviation of 1.06 led credence to this finding. Confirming this finding, UNESCO (2020) report revealed that the world after COVID-19 will witness a surge in home-schooling activities which will disrupt the traditional learning system.
Further finding revealed that COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 negatively affected people’s movement and transportation. From this finding, it was discovered that the pandemic caused restriction in movement and closure of transportation companies and airlines, which in turn brought about financial loss on the part of drivers and transport owners and reduction in passenger number thereby increasing transportation cost. This finding was further confirmed by the all responses in Table 5 which were all answered in the affirmative, with a total mean score of 3.01 which is above 2.50 mean decision point. This finding supports the finding of Abubakar who identifies the adverse effect of corona virus to businesses across the globe. Abubakar’s study reveals that transportations and travel companies, businesses in the hospitality industry and industrial production companies have experienced a significant drop in patronage.
Finally, the study revealed that COVID-19 pandemic affected people’s household welfare in a negative way. This was based on the affirmative responses in Table 5 which confirmed that the pandemic reduced income inflow in families, increased poverty rate, led to poor feeding habits and to loss of jobs which increased depression and frustration. Also, the overall mean score of 3.03 which was above the mean decision point of 2.50 with a standard deviation of 0.98 further confirmed this finding. This finding corroborated previous finding by the National Bureau of Statistics [32-34] survey which revealed that in the poorest households 45% had the highest share of Nigerians who lost their jobs while 35% of the wealthiest households were also affected. Further finding of NBS revealed that 79% of Nigerian households reported a decrease in income since mid-March 2020. This finding also supports the previous findings of Baker, Farrokhnia, Meyer, Pagel and Yannelis.
Conclusion
This study assessed the impact of corona virus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on social lives and interactions of Nigerian citizens. From the findings, COVID-19 has negatively affected the lives of people, ranging from lack of face-to-face human communication and interaction, to change in people’s social welfare and lifestyle, to halt in education and academic activities, restriction in movement and transportation and household welfare challenges. Thus, people’s social lives, activities and income were greatly affected as a result of lockdown order in the year 2020. It is therefore, concluded that the pandemic has done more harm than good to Nigerian people and the economy as it let to unpredicted structural behavioural changes and recession that in turn resulted in hunger and poverty and deaths. This becomes a great challenge that must be dealt with in order to curb or possibly nip the menace of COVID-19 disease and its negative consequences in the bud. Based on the conclusion, it is recommended that policymakers should intensify efforts to ensure that corona virus is completely eradicated by providing and making COVID-19 drugs and vaccines available to all Nigerians. This study therefore, has presented an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Nigerian citizens and thus, contributed to government’s efforts to avert the negative impact of the pandemic on the economy and the people.
To curb or possibly nip the menace of COVID-19 in the bud and commence normal human activities in Nigeria: Policy makers should intensify efforts to ensure that corona virus is completely eradicated by providing and making COVID-19 drugs and vaccines available to all Nigerians. Nigerian government should approve and implement fumigation of all the institutions and households in all the Nigerian States on monthly basis. The government should ensure strict compliance to PTF directive on COVID-19 by every Nigerian citizen by delegating PTF monitoring teams to States and Communities in Nigeria. The lockdown rule should be ruled out or stopped; however, every Nigerian citizen should always wear facemask and maintain proper hygiene. Government should ensure adequate distribution of COVID-19 palliatives to people; especially those in sub-urban areas to enable them cope with the economic recession occasioned by the pandemic.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge all the research participants who responded to the appeal to complete the online questionnaire for this study. We are also grateful to the anonymous peer reviewers and the Editors of Archives of Medicine for their suggestions and comments to strengthen this paper.
Funding
None.
Conflict of Interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
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