The campaign against COVID-19 in Nigeria: exploring church leaders’ role perception and action

ABSTRACT

Due to the constructive roles religious leaders played during previous pandemics, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations have outlined the roles expected of religious leaders in the current campaign against COVID-19. However, during previous pandemics, some religious leaders also undermined public-health measures. Thus, it is important to understand what religious leaders think of the expectations of health organizations, as well as their responses to the pandemic. This study explored church leaders’ role perception and action towards COVID-19 in Nigeria. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eighteen church leaders from Catholic, Anglican, and Pentecostal churches. Using a thematic analysis method, the study found that while all the participants agreed to have roles in the campaign against COVID-19, interpretations of these roles and the corresponding actions differed between those who promote public-health measures and those who undermine these measures. Implications of findings for policy and research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• religious leaders
• church leaders
• WHO
• role perception
• action
• Nigeria

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of the informants who granted interviews on their role perceptions and actions on COVID-19 in Nigeria. The insightful comments from the reviewers are also duly acknowledged.

Compliance with Ethical Standard

The authors complied completely with all ethical standards applicable to the research of this nature. The ethical approval for this study was issued by the Ethics Committee at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).