68.8% of Nigerians Believe COVID-19 is Real, Only 39.9% Trusts Vaccine – Survey

Femi Ashekun/

A survey conducted by SBM Intel has revealed that 68.8% of Nigerians believe Coronavirus is real, 14.4% is not sure while 16.7% doesn’t believe it’s exists.

Also, only 39.9% of Nigerians say they will take the COVID-19 vaccine, while 63.3% is opposed to another lockdown.

SBM Intel, a geopolitical research and strategic communications consulting firm, disclosed these and more in its recent report titled, ‘Covid in Nigeria: The Second Wave’.

The age demographics of the correspondents for the survey were chosen across a broad age category.

“The majority of the respondents were between 28-40 years (36.7%) followed by those between 18-27 years (24.0%), then 41-55 years (22.2%) which represents the active (working) population. 9.5% of the respondents were older than 55 years, and a smaller percentage, 7.7% were younger than 18 years,” the report revealed.

Ekiti, Enugu, Kogi, Nasarawa, and Sokoto states had less than 50% of their respondents stating that the virus is real. These states have relatively low official death rates, Ekiti (7), Enugu (21), Kogi (2), Nasarawa (13) and Sokoto (20) compared to states with high death rates as Lagos (250), the FCT (106) and Edo (117).

An interviewee said, “The virus is real, but I don’t believe that it is present in Nigeria because people are not dying and they are not observing most of the precautions.”

The report disclosed that most people of all age categories don’t deny the existence of a virus, however, people who are older than 55 years have the highest percentage of respondents who are unsure of the existence of coronavirus, citing reduced social interactions and smaller circles which keeps them away from contact with infected persons.

Despite the fact that over 68% of the respondents believe that the virus is real, 59.5% of the respondents representing a majority of the respondents do not think that people are taking the right measures to prevent COVID-19.

“More interestingly, in some public institutions like banks and eateries where private security personnel enforces compliance with mask-wearing and hand sanitizing, people tend to comply just because such enforcement serves as an entry ticket.

Researchers observed that once many people got into such premises, they took off their masks and started to flout other precautionary measures.

“Only 39.9% of the respondents said they will take the vaccine. An almost equal proportion of respondents (35.9 %) said they will not take the vaccine which the government announced is to arrive in the country at the end of January, and 24.1% is unsure of their position at the moment.

Reasons for not wanting to receive the vaccine include mistrust with the government and religious beliefs.

“Some respondents held that it is a religious war to contaminate the children of God with evil substances. Some believe that the vaccines are a tool to depopulate Nigeria, while others expressed concern about the effectiveness ratio and the side-effects that the vaccine might have,” SBM said.

63.3% of Nigerians are opposed to another lockdown. The report cited the number is much lower than the past report which revealed 90.24% is opposed to the idea of another lockdown.

15.1% is on the fence on this issue and only 21.6% of the respondents would support another lockdown.

Opposition to lockdowns was linked to economic and security impacts witnessed during the previous lockdown as the economy contracted to lead to unemployment and increased hardship for Nigerians.

0