Conceptions of the COVID-19 Pandemic among Religious Leaders in Nigeria: Implications for Responses and Coping Mechanisms

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the concomitant relationship between the different conceptions
of the COVID-19 pandemic among religious leaders in Nigeria and its implications for their
various response and coping mechanisms. The study used secondary sources such as newspapers
and magazines, scholarly texts, journal articles, and the internet for content analysis and conclusion.
It argues that responses to COVID-19 safety rules, lockdowns and coping measures among the
religious organisations, denominations and sects in Nigeria were outcomes of their conceptions or
misconceptions about the disease. It was observed that while some religious leaders and followers
alike dismissed COVID-19 as a farce resulting from conspiracy theories of diseases, others
accepted the existence of the pandemic. The study contends that while denial of the disease led
to resistance and opposition to the directives issued by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control
(NCDC) to curb the spread of the disease in the country, belief in the reality of the disease and its
manifestation as an act of God resulted in a positive response to the directives passed to mitigate
the pandemic. The study concludes that several religious leaders would not have devised credible
coping mechanisms in the church services without the government’s enforcement of the lockdown.