Curbing COVID-19 overbearance: Creed, socio-cultural practices and sub-Saharan African nations’ food security nexus

Abstract

The issue of COVID-19 ravaging the global community can be likened to one of the works of the famous Nigerian writer, late Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart with the center despite all efforts, defiling holding together on all aspects of human endeavor. Despite the discovery of Covid-19 vaccines and its consequent administration for mitigating the effects of the pandemic, information is replete about the continuous and astronomical increase in the number of victims of the virus. The multiplier effects of the pandemic on occupation, education, economic, religious, socio-cultural practices, agricultural activities, food production and distribution, among others cannot be over-emphasized, hence, this study. Qualitative design was adopted for this study as action research with eighty participants sampled from Oyo Township of Oyo State, Nigeria through purposive sampling technique among various strata of the society. Participant Observation (PO), Key Informants (KI) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) techniques were adopted in data collection analyzed through triangulation of instruments of content analysis and categorization of ideas coupled with tables, frequency counts and simple percentages. Result revealed that: more female than male participated in the study (43/37; 53.75%/46.25%); most participants are above middle age (53.75% and 46.25%); participants cut across the three dominant religious sects (Muslim, 36, 45.00%; Christian, 29, 36.25%; ATR, 15, 18.75%); most of the participants are literate (68, 85.00%). Content analysis and observations indicators revealed that Nigeria is not spared from Covid-19 pandemic; solid relationships exist among religious beliefs, socio-cultural practices, food security and Covid-19 pandemic. Hence, sustainable mitigating measures devoid of further complications need be pursued in the SSA nations; government, stakeholders and the civil society must be enlisted in the efforts to ameliorate the pandemic.