Facing Up to Death: Nigeria and Its Creative Industry in the Era of COVID-19

Abstract

While they are “famous for the ravages they have caused” and comparable to the horrific situations that accompany natural disasters and warfare, epidemics and pandemics have aroused a variety of social, cultural, and political responses; it is the same with COVID-19 which forced governments to impose health restrictions globally. Epidemics and pandemics take on a wider significance when resultant turndowns significantly affect the people and when restrictions are imposed to curtail the spread of disease. Measures such as quarantines and business closures to curtail the spread of COVID-19 also fall into this category. While these were largely global measures during the early days of the pandemic, and while effects were felt more by middle and lower classes globally, it was a unique experience for the people of Africa, the continent that was perhaps least prepared to combat such a ravaging disease due to a number of factors: generally poor health care situations, unstable political systems, dwindling economies and, above all else, lackluster government policies and official and indeed horrific corruption. Such was the case in Nigeria, which will be the focus of this chapter.