Temitope Musowo writes on how trust affects the compliance to all Covid -19 protocols.
Trust is the foundation upon which the legitimacy of political and administrative institutions and actors are built. Government’s capacity for policy implementation largely depends on trust.
Without trust in government, it becomes so difficult to mobilise people’s support for government’s policy, especially when such policy requires people to make short-term sacrifices.
Compliance with COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical protocols especially requires sacrifices on the part of the people whose way of life has been altered.
This demands that on covers the face even under intense heat, washing of hands even when one is not expecting any food. Subjecting a medical doctor to a temperature check by a security guard is another.
Restricting gathering to certain number doesn’t seem to sit well with many Nigerians who by nature like socialising. Even the pharmaceutical protocols, for a government under whom the health sector has suffered much neglect, to suddenly start spending hundred of billions on a disease with less than three percent fatality rate, while paying no attention to others with higher fatality rate raises suspicion.
Therefore, government’s concern for people’s disregard for both pharmaceutical and non- pharmaceutical protocols should be checked on the basis of trust.
Experts opinion on public trust and compliance to government’s policy . In a chat with a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, Prof Emmanuel Aiyede on the correlation between public trust and compliance to government’s policy, he said, “Trust is crucial for public policy, the implementation of which largely depends on behavioural response from the public. The perception of government by the people most of the times, determines how people respond to government’s policy. There is also a dislike between people’s perception of government and government’s performance.
“People measure government’s performance using certain variables like the state of infrastructure, public education, healthcare delivery, public safety, social welfare.
“People also use indices like public accountability or level of corruption, justice system, employment opportunities, housing, etc, to measure government’s performance.”
The question is where does this government stands in an average Nigerian’s reckoning, using these parameters. This would then give you an answer as to how the level of trust in government affects people’s compliance to government’s policy and the COVID-19 protocols in this case.
People’s perception of government and COVID-19 protocols According to Mr Chuks Obi, an artisan in Lagos, the insincerity of government on many issues is why he won’t obey government’s policy on COVID-19.
“Is it only corona virus that is ravaging society? What about other diseases like tuberculosis and HIV? Its all their ploy to divert public funds.”
Another respondent, an accountant has this to say’ “Can anyone take this government serious? Look at the state of our health system in Nigeria, this would be the five weeks the doctors have been on strike, how much are they asking for, is it up to the amount the president gave to his state governor in Katsina for ranching, is cow more important than human being in Nigeria?
“Before you can enforce any law as government officials, you will lead by example. Did you see any COVID-19 protocol being obeyed at the president’s son’s wedding? Go to Anambra and see crowd at campaign ground, are the protocols meant for common man alone.”
Yet, another respondent, a civil servant who would not want her name mentioned said, “If you obey the protocols and take your vaccine, it is for your own good and safety and that of the people around you, not government.
“For the government, I can’t say. In a population of 200 million people, what is the total number of COVID-19 test we have carried out, if we don’t carry out enough test, how do we know the dominant variant of COVID-19 we have in Nigeria, if we don’t know the dominant variant, how do we know which vaccine will be more potent for our dominant variant?
“These are questions the government need to answer because we cannot continue to experiment with the life of the people. There is also a limit to copy and paste approach.
“Then, the government need to pay the kind of attention it pays to COVID-19 to our health sector so that people would take the government serious, so that people stop thinking it stands to benefit something from the COVID-19 that is why it is paying this unusual attention “
