Combating COVID-19 infodemic in Nigerian rural communities: The imperatives of Traditional Communication Systems

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019, substantial attention has been devoted to combating the infodemic that has come to characterize it with the potential to prevent its effective containment. This is undoubtedly a very difficult task, especially in Nigerian rural communities that are characterized by severe lack of the requisite facilities to access information on modern media platforms, compounded by high illiteracy and poverty rates. This study presents a case for the utilization of people-oriented, traditional communication systems in combatting the infodemic at the grassroots level. It contends that, given the peculiarities of the country’s rural settlements, traditional communication systems present suitable alternatives that could be harnessed and leveraged upon to carry everyone along in the fight against the pandemic. Using data from secondary sources, the study argues that the fight against COVID19 infodemic can be more effective if stakeholders recognize and optimize the opportunities offered by traditional communication systems and channel them towards mobilizing and sensitizing rural dwellers to disregard the myriad conspiracy theories and myths about the pandemic, and instead adopt positive behaviors that would help to curtail its spread. This will go a long way in filling the information gap that exists at the grassroots and more effectively help contain the pandemic. To achieve this, the study recommends the need for a robust health intelligentsia to be trained and equipped with skills and competencies in using these communication channels for effective mobilization and sensitization of the people at the grassroots.

However, as the pandemic attained community transmission status in countries across the globe, the efficiency of these conventional and social media platforms became highly questionable. This has been particularly so in developing and third world nations, given the peculiar nature of rural communities in these countries, characterized by lack of modern amenities to access information from sophisticated modern media platforms, compounded by illiteracy and high poverty rates, among other obstacles (Targema & Obun-Andy, 2020). This informs the need to explore alternative communication approaches that could be harnessed to effectively reach out to people at the grassroots. In this study, we present a case for the Community Engagement | Volume 4, Number 2, 2020 integration of people-oriented traditional communication systems into the fight against the infodemic. The assumption is that these channels are popular and accessible to all, hence, their incorporation and utilization by stakeholders will go a long way in countering misinformation and conspiracy theories. This is the central thesis upon which the argument in this study is hinged.

Combating COVID-19 infodemic in Nigerian rural communities: The big challenge
Tackling the infodemic that surrounds COVID-19 is a challenging task that stakeholders must contend with in combatting the virus (Naffi, Davidson & Jawhar, 2020;WHO. 2020a). At the global level, WHO coordinates the fight against this infodemic by publishing regular updates, bursting myths, and debunking conspiracy theories once they are noticed in the public domain (WHO, 2020b). Other international, regional, and national agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and health institutions are also at the forefront of combating this infodemic, utilizing conventional and emerging media platforms in the process.
In Nigeria, for instance, aside from publishing regular updates on the official website and social media handles of the NCDC, the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, in collaboration with relevant agencies and ministries during the period of the national lockdown that lasted from March to early May, organized daily briefings which were widely broadcast on national television stations across the country. This avenue was used to debunk myths and conspiracy theories on the pandemic. The period also saw the Presidential Taskforce engaging in intensive media advocacy and sensitization to stimulate positive attitudinal patterns required to tame the spread of the virus in the country. However, as the media advocacy ran on the country's conventional and new media platforms, a careful observation of the approach reveals the manifestation of Tichenor, Donohue & Olien's Knowledge Gap Theory hypothesis.
The theory contends that: as the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, higher socioeconomic status segments tend to acquire this information faster than lower socioeconomic status population segments. Hence, the gap in knowledge between the two tends to increase rather than decrease.
This assumption explains the likely situation that characterizes access to information on COVID-19 in Nigeria among people living in rural settlements. Rural dwellers in Nigeria are left behind in the communication circle that utilizes sophisticated modern communication systems. This is because the rural communities are characterized by neglect and deprivation the country have no access to electricity. This denies them access to media receptive gadgets that require electricity, such as television, computers, and mobile cell phones that require regular charging. Poverty level is also very high in these rural settlements, a factor that is critical to media access. This is compounded by illiteracy which has come to be the most disturbing feature of people at the local level.
Collectively, these factors make it difficult to carry people in rural areas along in terms of information and communication. Sadly, such communities are home to a substantial proportion of the Nigerian population. The World Bank (2020) estimates that about 98,156,651 million people in Nigeria (49.66 % of the entire population) live in the rural areas.
The deprivation that characterizes these areas make it imperative to explore communication alternatives that would help to carry them along, especially in crucial times like the outbreak of COVID-19. This is because the fake news that feeds off the legitimate news goes viral, informing the need to adopt a holistic approach towards effectively countering them across all levels of society. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how traditional communication channels could be harnessed and deployed to effectively complement communication strategies for containing the COVID-19 infodemic in Nigerian rural communities that lack the capacity to access information from most of the modern media channels of communication.

Methods
This study utilizes qualitative research methods to generate data from secondary sourcesbooks, journal articles, corporate websites, technical reports, newspaper and media reports, and databases of agencies to build up arguments in the study. The study focuses primarily on Nigeria, with rural communities as the centre of attraction, given their peculiarities in terms of access to authentic information. Data derived from secondary sources served to provide details about the endemicity rate of COVID-19 in Nigeria, the manifestation of conspiracy theories and how they have affected efforts to curb the disease as well as the imperatives of traditional communication systems for bridging the information gaps that exist at the grassroots with the high potential of effecting positive attitudinal patterns towards the pandemic.

Results and Discussion
The following sections contain details of discussions arising from the data. They focus primarily on the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria and highlights of the major developments, the ensuing infodemic, and popular COVID-19 myths and conspiracy theories that have been propagated in Nigeria and by extension, in Africa, the challenges of tackling the pandemic and infodemic, especially in rural communities with serious information deficits, and the relevance of traditional communication systems as alternative communication platforms for connecting with people at the grassroots level.

COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria: Highlights of major developments and response strategies
The index COVID-19 case in Nigeria was recorded on February 27, 2020 (NCDC, 2020). An Italian citizen working in Lagos who had just returned from Milan tested positive for the virus. Lagos is the commercial hub and most populated state in the country. Since then, the number of positive cases has continued to rise. By the 18 th of March, the federal government had imposed "a travel bans and suspended visa on arrival for all travellers coming from countries that registered over 1,000 cases domestically" (NCDC, 2020). However, the spread of the virus continued until it became necessary to lock down the country. On March 30 th , lockdown was imposed on Abuja (the Federal Capital Territory-FCT), Lagos, and Ogun States.
This was later extended to other states across the federation that also recorded high numbers of cases. Aside from states that were included in the federal government's lockdown, state governors in exempted states who also felt the need, locked down to curtail the spread of the virus within their borders. This was followed by an interstate travel ban that was imposed to prevent interstate mingling and movement of people across states of the federation. There were exceptions, though, for supplies of essential goods and services.
The lockdown sparked a serious socioeconomic crisis that saw citizens calling for reopening of the economy to enhance their living conditions. This was despite the palliativestypically food items and in some instances, financial assistance-that were distributed to vulnerable individuals to cushion the effects of the lockdown in endemic states of the federation. Following the outcry, Federal Government relaxed the lockdown on the 4 th of May (NCDC, 2020;Olufemi, 2020). This resulted in an exponential rise in the number of positive cases that doubled the initial total within the first week after the lockdown was relaxed.
Olufemi (2020), also corroborates that "Nigeria recorded more COVID-19 cases in the past week than in the previous eight weeks put together." Positive cases in the country rose from 1,728 on May 3 rd to 3,526 one week later, by May 8. Since then, the cases have continued to rise. By the 24 th of November, the country had recorded a total of 66,439 cases. Lagos remains the epicentre of the national pandemic, accounting for one-third of the total cases. Other states with high numbers of cases include the FCT, Oyo, and the Plateau states. Figure 1 below presents a summary of positive, active, and discharged cases, and deaths from COVID-19 in Nigeria as of November 24, 2020.

The outbreak of an infodemic: An overview of the major conspiracy theories
COVID-19 is, no doubt, the most controversial disease in humanity's recent history. Several conspiracy theories have emerged with the potential to "delay or even derail efforts to contain the virus" (Miller, 2020). Depoux et al. (2020) observe that within weeks of its outbreak, misleading rumours and conspiracy theories circulated the globe, causing great panic and confusion among members of the public. They note that "a striking particularity of this crisis is the coincidence of virology and virality. Not only did the virus itself spread very rapidly, but so did the information-and misinformation-about the outbreak, and thus the panic that it created among the public."

Confirmed Cases, 66439
Active Cases, 3030 Discharged Cases, 62241 Death Cases, 1051 The WHO (2020a) acknowledged this trend when it stated that the pandemic's "outbreak and response has been accompanied by a massive "infodemic" -an over-abundance of information, some accurate and some not -that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it." In recognition of this, WHO emphasizes the need for "country risk communication and community engagement" as a critical public health intervention in all countries and recommends that "countries should prepare to communicate rapidly, regularly, and transparently with the population. All countries should prepare existing public health communication networks, media and community engagement staff to be ready for possible cases and for the appropriate response" (WHO, 2020a). (2020) (2020), the ensuing scenario is such that:

Smith, McAweeney and Ronzaud
"… A global cacophony of voices is communicating conflicting and politicized information about the coronavirus, further amplified by the organic spread of misinformation from audiences eager to consume and share updates and advice on the coronavirus in a time of mass uncertainty …" The first controversy that greeted COVID-19 centered on its origin. Early Chinese sources linked the disease to bats. This war of words degenerated further, and eventually took the form of the already existing divides of ideology and racism. Chinese products and people were stereotyped and stigmatized within the group of nations, especially those inclined to the conservative right wing (Smith, McAweeney & Ronzaud, 2020). They cite the sudden "popularity of hashtags like #ChinaVirus and #WuhanCoronavirus, with posts often mentioning traditional Chinese food and culture in a stigmatizing manner" to buttress the stereotype. The outbreak of conspiracy theories on the pandemic was comprehensive and reflected the topical issues that continued to dominate the world's attention prior to the pandemic. Smith, McAweeney and Ronzaud (2020) observed that: "… At first, coronavirus conspiracies appeared to revolve around the origin of the outbreak, often by tapping into existing theories about the "new world order" and "population control." As the pandemic has spread to geographies in which communities that support these theories are traditionally particularly strong, conspiracy content has become more granular, with articles focused on various governmental responses to the outbreak …" Another controversy that trails COVID-19 centres on the right medication to treat its  (Thomas, 2020). In the wake of the controversy, WHO on May 25 announced a "temporary pause" in its Solidarity Trial on the use of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 patients" (Okonoboh, 2020). However, in yet another controversial move, a Nigerian-trained doctor based in the United States, Stella Immanuel, in a viral video on social media in July claimed she had treated over 350 COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine (Adebulu, 2020). This disclosure is an addition to the already crowded [mis]information space of the virus, as many more controversial and widely contested positions crop up on daily basis, further complicating the management of the disease.

Popular African COVID-19 myths and conspiracy theories
Africa's precarious situation leaves most of its countries at the mercy of conspiracy give it serious thought.
In the wake of the controversy that greeted Madagascar's public presentation of the herbal medicine, WHO welcomed the need to explore alternative traditional medications for the disease but cautioned against the use of treatments that have not been tested or investigated for clinical efficacy and safety. With the absence of a clinical test for efficacy, African countries (including Nigeria) that gave the disease a thought had to independently test it before its eventual usage (Folorunsho-Francis, 2020). However, after clinical trials, the herbal concoction was found to be ineffective for treating the virus (Tih, 2020). WHO warned that the use of local substances that could cure malaria as treatments for COVID-19 would cause people to develop resistance to those substances as potential cures for malaria, thereby complicating the health situation of citizens?
The 5G controversy is another widely speculated conspiracy theory (Chan, Dupuy & Lajka, 2020) that has generated serious interest in many African countries, Nigeria inclusive. It was speculated that 5G network facilitates the spread of the virus, a claim that lacked scientific proof. WHO (2020b) maintains that viruses cannot travel on radio waves or mobile networks, and pointed to the fact that COVID-19 was spreading in many countries that did not have a 5G tested negative a few days later (Padayachee & Toit, 2020;Williams, 2020). Soon, it was widely speculated that Black and brown people were genetically resistant to the virus because melanin, the pigment which gives skin its color, provided extra protection (Williams, 2020). Although the claim has been debunked (Kerstcher, 2020), it continues to resonate in different settings across the continent. When the virus subsequently took its toll on the Western world, with the highest number of cases recorded in the US, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, the theory of black superiority and immunity to the virus continued to gain ground in Africa without any scientific basis. Not even the gradually rising figures of positive cases and fatalities across the continent could effectively put an end to this theory.

b. COVID-19 cannot survive in Africa's warm climate
Another widely circulated myth about the virus is its purported inability to survive Africa's warm climate (Padayachee & Toit, 2020;Puleo, 2020). The source of this speculation is published (non-peer reviewed) research by Wang, Tang & Feng (2020), who purportedly found that high surface temperatures and high humidity reduced the transmission of COVID-19. Although the validity of this study -which has not undergone the rigor of academic peer review -remains highly contested, it has been widely circulated in Africa. Even as the WHO mythbusters team and national agencies and experts have refuted the claim (WHO, 2020b), and even as the pandemic has ravaged Latin American countries with equally warm climates, such as Brazil (Castanheira, 2020), the speculation continues in several quarters across the continent.

c. Spraying alcohol and chlorine bleach on the body prevents COVID-19
With the recommendation that the use of alcoholic hand sanitizers kills COVID-19, it became widely speculated in several quarters that spraying alcohol and bleach will disinfect the body and kill the virus (Padayachee & Toit, 2020 This is another widely speculated COVID-19 myth that went viral on social media (Padayachee & Toit, 2020). AFP Fact Check (2020), however, debunked this claim.
Experts maintain that "while drinking tea can be beneficial for one's health, it cannot be touted as a preventive measure or a treatment in the case of COVID-19".

e. Peppered soup with lime or lemon flushes out the virus
This myth trended mostly in Nigeria. It was speculated that taking peppered soup and lemon will flush out the virus from the human system, a speculation with no scientific basis (Padayachee & Toit, 2020).

f. Steam from neem prevents COVID-19
Another wide speculation held that inhaling or exposing one's face to steam from neem -a common medicinal tree in most African societies -can prevent COVID-19. This myth, which was widely speculated in Ghana, originating from the President of the Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association (GHAFTRAM), Kojo Odum Eduful (GhanaWeb, 2020).
Like many other COVID myths, it lacks a scientific basis (Padayachee & Toit, 2020). BBC (2020e) has also reported speculation in Tanzania that inhaling steam generally is an effective treatment against the virus, a claim which is also said to be false.

g. Vitamin C tablets prevent COVID-19
Vitamin C has been widely promoted as a cure for COVID-19 (Padayachee & Toit, 2020). Rettner (2020) notes that although Vitamin C is very important to the human system, it is not been found to be a cure, nor does it provide prevention against the virus. Community Engagement | Volume 4, Number 2, 2020 h. Having had malaria makes one immune to COVID-19 Padayachee and Toit (2020) also list this among the widely speculated myths on the virus that have no scientific basis. While malaria is a protozoan disease, COVID-19 is a viral disease, hence, having had the former does not make one immune to the latter.
WHO (2020b) clarifies further that although it is not caused by bacteria, "some people who become ill with COVID-19 can also develop a bacterial infection as a complication." At the moment, no medical condition has been discovered to offer immunity to the virus as yet, as efforts to develop an effective immunization have attained an advanced stage in many countries across the globe.
i. COVID-19 is a disease exclusive to wealthy people and urban dwellers With the concentration of COVID-19 cases in urban centers where most of its victims were wealthy, a theory developed that linked the virus to wealth, affluence, and urban centers. Thus, the poor rural dwellers considered themselves privileged and immune to the virus. It was simply dismissed in such quarters as an "illness for the rich." As the lockdown lasted to curb the virus, the rural dwellers went about their usual businesses unhindered. This caused them to disregard the safety guidelines and stipulated protocols such as social distancing, frequent hand sanitizing, use of face masks in crowded places, and clampdowns on crowded gatherings. Like the other myths, this has no scientific basis, as COVID-19 does not discriminate between the rich and poor, rural and urban dwellers, or any other stratification for that matter.

j. COVID-19 is a divine punishment for man's iniquities
There is speculation that the virus only affects sinners and is a punishment unleashed by God to purge the world of sinful elements. The Islamic State (IS), for instance, described the virus as God's divine retribution against China. Azman (2020) quotes pro-IS commentators as saying, "May God punish China with death as they had brought death to Muslims." "As China beats Uyghur Muslims, coronavirus is now beating China." "The virus is God's army that destroys the kafir (infidels)." Such sentiments were shared by many IS sympathizers (Mourad, 2020), although the virus was to soon extend its havoc beyond China. Very soon, Islamic nations such as Iran and Turkey, among others, became flashpoints of the pandemic with huge casualty figures. The Christian   and instruments, such as those listed in the tables above, could be harnessed to spread awareness about the pandemic at the grassroots, where they enjoy relative popularity.
This is not to exonerate some of the channels of communication at this level for their gross inefficiency in complementing the COVID-19 information strategy. For instance, channels such as the marketplaces, cultural dances and ceremonies, local theatre and folklore, the village square, and religious places of worship, etc., that call for crowded gatherings, fall short of requirements of communication channels to fight the pandemic, especially when there were serious restrictions on crowded gatherings. Notwithstanding this deficiency, this study submits that, given the strengths and weaknesses of the various traditional channels of communication, communication experts must carefully study and understand their modus operandi to effectively deploy them for more optimal results. This is crucial if the teaming population at the grassroots must be carried along in critical times with relevant information on the required course of actions and behavioural patterns to adopt.

Conclusion
Given the relevance of traditional systems for communication at the local level, this study concludes that to effectively combat the COVID-19 infodemic in Nigerian rural communities, stakeholders and communication experts must leverage the opportunities that they offer in this regard. This will help the ensuing campaigns to carry everybody along for more positive impact. This recommendation becomes necessary given the deficiencies of modern media platforms in Nigerian rural communities, and the need to effectively reach out to the people at that level. Given the peculiarities of Nigerian rural communities characterized by severe deprivation of the basic social amenities and modern information technologies, it is imperative that an inclusive campaign against COVID-19 infodemic adopt eclectic communication combo, with stakeholders utilizing the most appropriate channels at each level. This will certainly enhance the chances of success.
However, given the inherent weaknesses of the traditional communication systems, we recommend that special public health intelligentsia be mobilized and carefully trained on how to use them to downplay the weaknesses towards optimal results. Primary healthcare workers at the grassroots can also be trained on how to use these channels to spread healthy information and counter the numerous myths and conspiracy theories that are so widely tossed about on the pandemic at the local level. This recommendation is necessary to