Crisis Management and the Interface between Politics and Administration: An Inference from the Nigerian’s Government Response to Covid-19 Pandemic

Covid-19 pandemic has created a ramifying public Administrative, economic, and political crisis in many countries across the globe. The pandemic has now appeared to be a thing of the past, however, now is the time for public administration researchers and political scientists to start understanding how and why governments responded the way they have, by exploring how effective these responses appear to be, and what lessons we can draw about effective public policy making in preparation for another pandemic or crisis. This paper therefore argues that there will be no way to understand the Nigerian Government responses to Covid-19 and their effects without understanding the relative interface between the political landscape and administrative framework of the country. The author thus proposes five key areas of intersection between politics and administration in understanding why the Nigerian government responded in the way it does, this includes: social policies to crisis management, regime type, formal political institutions, constitutionalism and the public health conveying mechanism (control over health care systems and public administration). The paper adopted a qualitative content analytical research approach with the aid of the policy streams" metaphor to achieve an extensive thematic review. Having critically evaluate the above points of intersection the paper concludes by positing that any future research on public policy in Nigeria that takes the country’s political structure especially the relative interface between politics and administration as a serious focus can enable the development of more robust and realistic research findings which can shape our broader understanding of the politics of policy implementation in the country.