摘要：Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the pathetic nature of the Nigeria healthcare system has become more glaring. In First World countries, the ravaging nature of the pandemic, marked by a high death toll, elicits trepidation among Nigerian citizens. What is more, these fears are not necessarily as a result of the lethal nature of COVID-19 but rather, they are consequent of certain conditions amongst which include: an inept and unconcerned leadership, accompanied by dilapidated health institutions characterized by poor working conditions and incentives. It is in lieu of these unhealthy conditions that the dreaded disease found its footing in the Nigerian environment. Against this background, this paper argues that the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria, its local dispersion occasioned by paucity of medical personnel and supplies due to decades of neglect of health care system is worrisome. This study recommends an overhaul of the healthcare system with the aim of achieving a robust health care system for Nigerian citizens. Thus far, various scholars have focused on corrupt leadership practices of Nigerian leaders without a detailed and in-depth study on the nexus between the health sector and this failure. It is this obvious gap in scholarship that this present study sets out to fill. The paper adopts a qualitative approach which will be anchored on primary and secondary sources of historical methodology. Thus, its significance lies in its ability to bring to the fore the nexus between leadership failure in Nigeria and the neglect of primary healthcare system. It will also expose the vulnerability of the Nigerian rich and poor in the face of the global pandemic Table 1 Table 2 . Covid-19 pandemic and The Nigerian primary healthcare system: The leadership question All authors Ngozika Anthonia Obi-Ani , Dominic Obinna Ezeaku , Ogechi Ikem , Mathias Chukwudi Isiani , Paul Obi-Ani & Onu Janefrances Chisolum https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2020.1859075 Published online: 11 January 2021 Table 1. As demonstrated in Table 1, from 2009 to 2013, no Nigerian health budget was neither up to 6% of its total budget nor 1% of its GDP CSV Display Table Covid-19 pandemic and The Nigerian primary healthcare system: The leadership question All authors Ngozika Anthonia Obi-Ani , Dominic Obinna Ezeaku , Ogechi Ikem , Mathias Chukwudi Isiani , Paul Obi-Ani & Onu Janefrances Chisolum https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2020.1859075 Published online: 11 January 2021 Table 2. NCDC weekly reports on epidemics CSV Display Table.
关键词：Covid-19 Nigeria leadership failure healthcare system pandemic
