Analysis of Government Communication Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Plateau State

Government crisis communication strategies during public health emergencies are critical determinants of public compliance with containment measures, and the performance of state governments in this regard during COVID-19 provides important lessons for communication planning in Nigeria. This study analysed the communication strategies employed by the Plateau State Government during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 to 2022), focusing on message design, channel selection, and public reception. A document analysis of official Plateau State Emergency Operations Committee press releases, social media outputs, and broadcast announcements was combined with a retrospective survey of 200 adult residents of Jos, sampled through convenience sampling. Residents were asked to evaluate their awareness of government messages, clarity of information received, and confidence in government guidance. Document analysis identified six primary communication phases with distinct message priorities. Survey results showed that awareness of government COVID-19 advisories was high (88.5 percent), but clarity of messages about quarantine procedures was satisfactory to only 51.3 percent of respondents. Trust in government health communication varied significantly by educational level (p < 0.01). Rumour and misinformation from social media was identified as a primary competing information source by 63.5 percent. The study concludes that Plateau State's COVID-19 communication was broadly visible but suffered from clarity and trust deficits, and recommends development of a pre-positioned crisis communication framework for future public health emergencies at the state level. Keywords: government communication, COVID-19, crisis communication, Plateau State, public health