The COVID-19 pandemic has been the subject of numerous scholarly discussions. However, scholars have yet to pay more attention to the link between its official containment measures and the struggle of informal workers for sustainable livelihoods in Nigeria. This study argues that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown policing was one aspect of the state-society encounter that had a deleterious effect on the economic security of vulnerable populations. The research employs the thesis of neoliberalism and a qualitative-dominant mixed methods approach to explore this state-society encounter during the pandemic. It concludes that a subtle and humane approach to policing in emergencies presents a more civil engagement in policy enforcement that would foster happier encounters between security forces and the general public.
AborisadeR (2021) Accounts of unlawful use of force and misconduct of the Nigerian police in the enforcement of COVID-19 measures. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology36(3): 450–462.
2.
AborisadeRAAriyoOG (2021) Policing the coronavirus pandemic: Nigeria police senior officers’ views on preparedness, response, legitimacy and post-COVID policing. International Journal of Police Science and Management24(1): 77–88. DOI: 10.1177/2F14613557211064048
3.
AborisadeRFayemiJ (2015) Police corruption in Nigeria: A perspective on its nature and control. Nigerian Journal of Social Studies18(2): 245–262.
4.
AborisadeRAGbahaboDD (2021) Policing the lockdown: accounts of police officers’ aggression and extortion of frontline health workers in Nigeria. Policing and Society31(5): 565–582.
5.
AnazonwuNPNnamaniKEOsadebeN, et al. (2021) State actors, human rights violations and informal livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Territory, Politics & Governance10: 876–895. DOI: 10.1080/21622671.2021.1976262.
6.
ArdoIMLenshieNEAmuchieAA, et al. (2022) COVID-19 pandemic, policy-intensified economic crisis and declining state control in Nigeria. Democracy and Security19: 58–81. DOI: 10.1080/17419166.2022.2097073.
7.
BalaamDVesethM (2013) Introduction to International Political Economy. 6th edition. London, UK: Pearson Education.
BroschekJ (2022) Federalism, political leadership and the Covid-19 pandemic: explaining Canada’s tale of two federations. Territory, Politics, Governance10: 779–798. DOI: 10.1080/21622671.2022.2101513.
ChambersRConwayG (1991) Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical concepts for the 21st century. IDS Discussion Paper 296. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.
14.
DoddsKBrotoVCDetterbeckK, et al. (2020) The COVID-19 pandemic: territorial, political and governance dimensions of the crisis. Territory, Politics, Governance8(3): 289–298.
15.
EzeibeCC (2016) ABC of Political Economy: A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding the State and Economy. Enugu, Nigeria: University of Nigeria Nsukka Press.
16.
EzeibeCCIloCEzeibeEN, et al. (2020) Political distrust and the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria. Global Public Health15: 1753–1766.
17.
EzeibeCCIwuohaVCMbaigboN, et al. (2022) From protection to repression: state containment of COVID-19 pandemic and human rights violations in Nigeria. Victims and Offenders19: 301–328. DOI: 10.1080/15564886.2022.2077494.
GulbrandsenKS (2022) Centre–periphery contestation and the spatialization of Covid-19 discourse in Norway. Territory, Politics, Governance10: 759–778. DOI: 10.1080/21622671.2022.2062440.
22.
HarveyD (2007) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press Inc.
International Labour Organization (2018) The Enabling Environment for Sustainable Enterprises in Zimbabwe. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Office. Enterprises Department.
IwuohaVCAnicheET (2020) Covid-19 lockdown and physical distancing policies are elitist: towards an indigenous (Afro-centred) approach to containing the pandemic in sub-urban slums in Nigeria. Local Environment25: 631–640. DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2020.1801618.
31.
JonesDJ (2020) The potential impacts of pandemic policing on police legitimacy: planning past the COVID-19 crisis. Policing: Journal of Policy Practice14(3): 579–586.
32.
LawrenceP (2020) Global capitalism and Africa after COVID-19. Review of African Political Economy47(165): 351–362.
33.
LenshieNE (2020) Ethno-religious identity and intergroup relations: the informal economic sector, Igbo economic relations, and security challenges in northern Nigeria. Central European Journal of International and Security Studies14(1): 75–105.
34.
LenshieNEAyokhaiFEF (2011) Global economic crisis and democratisation in Nigeria. Review of African Studies1(1): 48–68.
35.
LenshieNEJoshuaMMEzeibeC (2021) COVID-19 pandemic and informal women workers in peri-urban communities in Nigeria. Local Environment26(6): 754–769.
36.
LenshieNEEzeibeCCJoshuaMM, et al. (2022) From motorcycle to tricycle: neoliberal political economy, informal transportation, and urban/peri-urban. Mobility in Nigerian cities. Transportation Journal61(2): 195–227.
37.
LindellI (2010) Introduction: the changing politics of informality – collective organising, alliances and scales of engagement. In: Lindellme. (ed) Africa's Informal Workers: Collective Agency, Alliances and Transnational Organising in Urban Africa. Uppsala and London: Nordic of African Institute and Zed Books.
38.
MeagherK (2011) Informal economies and urban governance in Nigeria: popular empowerment or political exclusion?African Studies Review54(2): 47–72.
39.
MengeshaZAllounEWeberD, et al. (2022) Lived the pandemic twice: a scoping review of the unequal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health19(11): 6624. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19116624.
40.
MatsongoniHMutambaraE (2018) An Assessment of informal SMEs’ potential in an African economy – Theoretical and conceptual framework. Public and Municipal Finance7(2): 1–13.
OnuhPA (2021) Nigeria’s response to COVID-19: lockdown policy and human rights violations. African Security14(4): 439–459.
45.
OnuohaFUgwuezeMI (2020) Special operations forces, counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations in the lake Chad area: the Nigerian experience. In: TarUABashirB (eds) New Architecture of Regional Security in Africa: Perspectives on Counter-terrorism and Counter-insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin. London, UK: Lexington Books, 267–294.
46.
OnuohaFCEzirimGEOnuhPA (2021) Extortionate policing and the futility of COVID-19 pandemic nationwide lockdown in Nigeria: insights from the South East Zone. African Security Review30(4): 451–472.
OnyishiCJEjike-AliejiAUPAjaeroCK, et al. (2020) COVID-19 pandemic and informal urban governance in Africa: a political economy perspective. Journal of Asian and African Studies56: 1226–1250. DOI: 10.1177/0021909620960163.
49.
OpiołaWBöhmH (2022) Euroregions as political actors: managing border policies in the time of Covid-19 in Polish borderlands. Territory, Politics, Governance10: 896–916. DOI: 10.1080/21622671.2021.2017339.
OruonyeEDAhmedYM (2020) COVID-19 and challenges of management of infectious medical waste in Nigeria: a Case of Taraba State. International Journal of Wine Research10(3): 381. DOI: 10.35248/2252-5211.20.10.381.
52.
OssaiEC (2021) Crises, conflict and cooperation: the two-sided impact of COVID-19 on peace in Nigeria. African Security14(4): 410–438.
53.
PérezFRVinaM (2021) From below and from within: fishing communities under the COVID-19 pandemic and other globalizations in southern Manabí, Ecuador. Territory, Politics, Governance10: 917–936. DOI: 10.1080/21622671.2021.1960595.
54.
PetersMA (2010) Neoliberalism, the market and performativity. In: PetersonPBakerEMcGawB (eds) International Encyclopedia of Education. 3rd edition. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier Ltd.
Saad-FilhoA (2020) From COVID-19 to the end of neoliberalism. Critical Sociology46(4-5): 477–485. DOI: 10.1177/0896920520929966.
57.
SargeantEMurphyKMcCarthyM, et al. (2021) The formal-informal control nexus during COVID-19: what drives informal social control of social distancing restrictions during lockdown?Crime & Delinquency69(4): 707–726. DOI: 10.1177/0011128721991824.
58.
ShodunkeAO (2022) Enforcement of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown orders in Nigeria: evidence of public (non)compliance and police illegalities. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction: IJDRR77: 103082. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103082.
59.
StognerJMillerBLMcLeanK (2020) Police stress, mental health, and resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic. American Journal of Criminal Justice: AJCJ45: 1–13.
60.
SillahBMS (2019) Formalizing informal economy: Improving decent work and tax collection in OIC member countries. Journal of Islamic, Social, Economics and Development4(23): 47–63.
UgwuezeMIOnuohaF (2020) Hard versus soft measures to security: explaining the failure of counter-terrorism strategy in Nigeria. Journal of Applied Security Research15(4): 547–567. DOI: 10.1080/19361610.2020.1811936.
UnniJ (2020) Impact of COVID-19 on informal economy: the revival. Indian Journal of Labour Economics: The Quarterly Journal of the Indian Society of Labour Economics63(1): 1–6.
