For weeks now, COVID-19 has dominated the global conversation and Nigeria is not left out. Understanding public behaviour has become an important part of the response, as countries scramble for solutions to the crisis.
To understand the perception and attitudes of Nigerians on the coronavirus pandemic, ResearcherNG, an independent public sentiment and research outfit, conducted a survey of 1,122 Nigerians.
The survey was conducted between April 6 and April 30, 2020 and here are some of its key findings:
- Most Nigerians (43%) Know Someone Who Took Pay Cuts or Lost Their Jobs or Were Affected Themselves.
The coronavirus epidemic did not only affect healthcare systems across the world but crippled businesses and affected economies in eventful ways. ResearcherNG in seeking to validate experiences of people shared mostly via online channels asked respondents what their current and 43% said they had either lost their jobs/businesses, taken pay cuts or knew someone who had similar experiences. 32% said they still had their jobs and full pay. 2% of our respondents said they got financial support from their employers while 1% were uncertain about their next pay. 14% of our respondents said they considered taking a loan to ease financial stress.
- Most Nigerians now attend religious events online. Since the restriction on religious gatherings due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Nigeria, religious houses have adopted news ways to carry out their activities, with most of them holding online while others have not totally complied. However, 55.5% of the survey respondents said they attend religious events online only, while 18.6% said nothing has changed about the way they practice religion.
- Most Nigerians Think the Coronavirus was created deliberately by someone in a lab:
One of the most important issues that have trailed public space since the outbreak of the coronavirus is about its origins. A lot of conspiracies and theories have emerged about where the virus must have emerged from. On where they think the coronavirus came from, most of the respondents thought it was developed intentionally by someone in a lab (43.8%), bowing to the theory that surfaced on the internet that the disease originated from a lab in Wuhan.
- Nigerians have higher levels of confidence in the NCDC, than they do the rest of Government in their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Nigeria confronts the Coronavirus at a time where trust in federal authorities and public institutions is abysmally low. ResearcherNG measured perception towards the NCDC and the Rest of Government by asking respondents how confident they are in the response of the NCDC vs that of other Government agencies.
- Social media is the primary source of news on covid-19 related issues for most Nigerians. They also think the media is covering the Outbreak of the coronavirus well.
In the past weeks, global media has been inundated with news and updates about the coronavirus pandemics. In Nigeria, the situation is not different. At 55.8% of respondents said they have been following news about the Coronavirus outbreak very closely, and get most of COVID19 related information from social media.
For more information on this survey, please contact Farida Adamu the lead consultant on ([email protected])
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