Urban Governance and Covid-19 Response in Nigeria: Who Is Left Behind?

This chapter assesses the Covid-19 response in Nigeria—highlighting the governance dimensions (interface of various stakeholders) and implications for sustainable development (pandemic containment in the immediate term and resilience building for the future). The chapter is based on the notion of governance, as distinct from government. Governance is the coordinating mechanism of both the public and private resources to achieve common goals, and central to its functioning is the extent of interaction among multiple stakeholders at different levels and across multiple sectors. Using a variety of sources, we evaluate Nigeria’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic through the lens of multi-level governance frameworks. We analyse both the vertical interactions between the federal, state and local governments and horizontal interactions between government, civil society actors and citizens. We focus on how these dynamics enhance or obstruct citizens’ access to health and social services, as well as education and information at the urban scale, given that cities are the epicentre of the pandemic. Our findings reveal insufficient coordination, accountability and engagement across multiple sectors. We also observed extensive capacity gaps at the local government level, with attendant consequences for citizen response to pandemic protocols. We conclude with a reflection of how existing governance structures could be optimised and/or modified to better respond to future pandemics.