COVID-19: Where are the Nigerian social workers?

In: Qualitative social work: research and practice, Band 20, Heft 1-2, S. 343-349

Abstract

The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has brought untold hardship across the globe. Developed nations have taken relatively commendable actions to quell its impact on livelihood and most have also included social workers in the frontline due to their expertise in working with vulnerable populations. Same cannot be said of developing nations particularly Nigeria who hurriedly copied the measures adopted by the developed nations without carefully considering her peculiarities. Given Nigeria's high poverty rate prior to and even higher during the pandemic as well as the few available resources, it is important that Nigerian social workers should be called upon as frontline workers with regards to the welfare of the vulnerable and the psychosocial well-being of infected persons and their families. Instead, Nigeria has totally ignored the importance of social workers and palliatives have been stolen by those tasked with distribution while the psychosocial well-being of affected persons has been left to fate.