Abstract
The tumultuous trajectories of COVID-19 undoubtedly reached all national
structures and functions, and their international equivalents. This
paper examines the nexus between the global onslaught of the enraging
pathogens and the leadership challenges still embedded in Nigeria’s
federalism. The general objective of the paper therefore was to study
the COVID-19 pandemic, federalism and Nigeria’s leadership challenges.
The paper is anchored on structural functionalism as theoretical
framework, under a qualitative and normative methodological design. The
work prognosticates that after COVID-19, the deadly viruses are coming
again and advises that when they come back, structurally and
functionally, they must not meet Nigeria the way the novel coronavirus
found it. The paper recommends the development of an inexhaustible pool
of leaders in the country by converting the current senatorial zones
(with the exclusion of Abuja where the Federal Capital Territory
Minister performs functions of similitude with that of a State Governor)
into Nigeria’s new federating states, and the current state demarcations
converted into 37 senatorial zones. This translates to 108 states in the
country.