The cases of unexplained pneumonia reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 prompted swift action by researchers and the Chinese government to control the epidemic (Sun et al. 2020). A month later, precisely on 12 January 2020, the new virus was tentatively named coronavirus 2019 (2019 – nCoV) by the World Health Organization (WHO). The virus reached a pandemic proportion on 30 January 2020 and was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO (2020). The disease triggered by 2019 – nCoV was formally named on 11 February 2020 as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 2019 – nCoV as coronavirus 2 of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) respectively by the WHO and the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy (Wang et al. 2020). The COVID-19 clinical symptoms include fever, fatigue, dry cough, malaise and breathing difficulty (Sun et al. 2020).

This highly contagious virus’ ravaging effect began in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China and then around the world (Reuben et al. 2020; Wang et al. 2020; Zhong et al. 2020) except Antarctica (Rahman & Bahar 2020). The rate of infection and spread among the regions and countries of the world was on the rise. Therefore, the COVID-19 global lockdown was introduced to curb the spread of the virus and ‘flatten the curve’ of the pandemic (Onyeaka et al. 2021). As a result, by April 2020, more than 3.9 billion people, about half of the world’s population, were subjected to lockdown, having been compelled to stay at home by their governments (Levenson 2020).

Like the rest of the world, Africa began enforcing partial or total closures of their borders, shutting down schools, prohibiting public congregations, enforcing other social distancing measures and announcing a state of emergency. The African lockdown was swiftly implemented in sub-Saharan Africa, probably due to its previous pandemic experience (Shallie & Haffejee 2021).

Hospitals in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos struggled to manage the influx of COVID-19 patients (Daily-Briefings 2020). In Nigeria, the public opinion was that COVID-19 is a ‘big man disease’, that is, disease of wealthy people (Akhaine 2020). This misconception, coupled with urban ghettos, high population, poor and scarce potable water and a weak healthcare system, made it difficult to introduce hygiene and other public health policies for restraining the coronavirus (Reuben et al. 2021).

The fight against COVID-19 is ongoing, with subsequent waves of high infection and new virus strains. To control the coronavirus, people need to strictly adhere to the standard infection control measures. Adherence and compliance are influenced by people’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviours (KAB) to prevent infection of the virus (Ajilore, Atakiti & Onyenankeya 2017; Tachfouti et al. 2012). The lockdown significantly impacted people’s daily social routine, characterised by longer solitary time at home, resulting in decreased interpersonal human contacts (Saladino et al. 2020). It is unknown how strict measures to control the spread of COVID-19 would affect the people, especially the youth, who constitute a large proportion of the population. A previous study on knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) among college students in Nigeria assessed college students’ adherence to EVD PSAs. The findings generally suggest that students are aware of the causes, symptoms and treatments of EVD and are willing to take preventive actions to avoid contracting or spreading the disease (Ajilore et al. 2017). Furthermore, there is an association between access to EVD public service announcements (PSAs) and a high level of knowledge of EVD among college students (Ajilore et al. 2017). As the authors advance, this positive correlation between understanding the disease and accessibility to PSA has significant ramifications for prevention education initiatives for both EVD and other infections such as COVID-19. Proactive communication strategies through sustained PSAs and other sources of health-related information sharing are required to dispel the widespread idea that these illnesses will never recur in Nigeria. This advocacy will forestall the likelihood of abandoning the preventive actions and habits acquired or relapse into unhealthy practices. The authors, therefore, investigated the KAB towards COVID-19 among students of a Nigerian tertiary educational institution.

This survey investigated the KAB of university students toward COVID-19, constituting the first such survey amongst university students in Nigeria. The study respondents were mainly young adults primarily located in the country’s southwestern region. There was an overall correct score of 78.7% (n = 863) on the knowledge of COVID-19, indicating that most of the respondents were knowledgeable about COVID-19. Most of them had a positive attitude towards the COVID-19 pandemic: 88.2% (n = 967) believed that COVID-19 would finally be successfully controlled, and 80% (n = 877) were confident that Nigeria could curb the spread of the virus. The high level of positive attitudes did not appear to translate into positive behaviours amongst all the students: over half of the respondents, 52.1% (n = 571), visited crowded places. However, most of them, 92.5% (n = 1014) wore masks when leaving home during the rapid first wave period of the COVID-19 outbreaks.

The findings of this study showed a high rate of COVID-19 knowledge amongst the respondents. This result was expected because this cross-sectional survey was conducted amongst educated university students who have access to information. A positive association between education level and COVID-19 knowledge scores was also noted. The positive correlation between university students and the knowledge of the signs and symptoms of disease shown in our study has previously been reported in a study by Ajilore et al. (2017) amongst university students, where they established a strong association between Ebola virus knowledge and college students’ attitudes towards the disease. Their findings suggested that college students’ knowledge of Ebola was high, even though they had misconceptions about the virus and there were gaps in their knowledge of the virus (Ajilore et al. 2017). A recent study in Nigeria amongst people living in the country’s North Central region also supported the findings of this current study, as they reported that the respondents were knowledgeable about the COVID-19 (Reuben et al. 2021). Other studies in Africa, Asia and Europe also reported high levels of knowledge of COVID-19 (Austrian et al. 2020; Huynh et al. 2020; Khan et al. 2020; Olapegba et al. 2020; Reuben et al. 2020; Saqlain et al. 2020; Zhong et al. 2020). The high level of COVID-19 knowledge recorded in this study could be attributed to the high level of education of the students, who have access to websites such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website and are familiar with using search engines to conduct research which requires health data for their work. As an extension, they could use these sites to access information to further their knowledge about the pandemic. In addition, the university was posting warnings on their websites and via bulk emails and WhatsApp messages.

There is also evidence that Ebola PSAs are generally accessible to students and that there is a strong association between Ebola knowledge and college students’ attitudes towards the disease. The findings suggest that college students’ knowledge of Ebola is high even though gaps in EVD-related knowledge and misconceptions persist. These findings have important implications for PSAs and prevention education initiatives for Ebola. In the future, PSAs and other prevention education initiatives must address misconceptions and pay particular attention to the false sense of security. There is a need for a proactive communication strategy to counter the growing belief that Ebola cannot resurface in Nigeria (Ajilore et al. 2017).

In this study, significant predictors of respondents’ knowledge were gender, age, educational level and marital status. The positive variance observed in this study amongst older and postgraduate respondents could be explained by the level of experience that comes with age and a higher education degree that increases intellectual prowess. A previous study showed that health knowledge acquisition is associated with familiarity and scholarly pursuits (Beier & Ackerman 2003). The higher knowledge of male respondents compared to female respondents could be due to the differences in digital media usage. Although both genders spent similar time on the internet, the type of usage differs, with female respondents having more interpersonal connections compared to male respondents who were orientated to acquiring information (Helsper 2010; Reiner et al. 2017). The study also found that male college students were more likely to look for news, read the online version of the school newspaper, and use the internet for political agendas than female students. In addition, the disproportionately high knowledge amongst single people compared to those who were married could be attributed to the comparatively high level of exposure to information via the internet amongst the youth, who constituted the unmarried respondents (Himawan et al. 2021).

The authors also reported a positive association between higher COVID-19 knowledge scores and a positive attitude. Over 80% of the respondents believed that Nigeria could control and ultimately curb the spread of COVID-19. Recent studies in other countries support the authors’ findings that optimistic attitudes can promote behaviours that help prevent the spread of the infection (Erfani et al. 2020; Qubais, Elbarazi & Barakat 2020; Zhong et al. 2020). The positive association between COVID-19 knowledge scores and positive attitude underscores the need for increased awareness and advocacy about COVID-19, which may eventually translate into positive behaviours and practices. Moreover, as reported previously, strong attitudes based on personal experience can easily influence behaviour (Ajilore et al. 2017; Clayton & Myers 2009). Furthermore, compliance with the preventive measures against the disease and sound knowledge of the signs and symptoms are associated with a positive attitude that ultimately influences behaviour (Ajilore et al. 2017; Crano & Prislin 2006).

The students’ positive attitude toward the control of COVID-19 could be related to the government’s unprecedented COVID-19 control measures to restrict movement in the country by shutting down the towns and cities and closing all borders. Secondly, the setting up of the presidential task force, which was replicated at the state level, also boosted the people’s confidence and precipitated a positive attitude. Thirdly, the residual memory of the country’s excellent handling and effective control of the Ebola outbreak within a brief period may have also instilled a sense of confidence amongst the respondents regarding the government’s ability to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic (Otu et al. 2018). This latter point is significant because an individual with a direct or indirect encounter or experience with a disease is more likely to develop strong preventive measures (Ajilore et al. 2017; Crano & Prislin 2006; Myers, Krawczyk & Agnello 2009).

The positive attitudes of most respondents towards COVID-19 have to a large extent translated into positive behaviours. The results of this study showed an overall 63.2% positive behaviours amongst the respondents. However, this percentage is lower compared to those reported by Olaimat et al. (2020) and Alzoubi et al. (2020) at 83.4% and 78%, respectively. Furthermore, despite about two-thirds of positive behaviours, some respondents, especially the young adults, indulged in risky behaviours, such as not wearing masks (7.5%) and going to crowded places. To increase compliance with wearing face masks, the government also recommended using locally made face masks (Adebowale 2020), as face masks are efficacious in reducing viral particles in the respiratory droplets (Leung et al. 2020; Razvi & Prasad 2020).

The high risk of going to a crowded place could be due to the young age of most of the respondents. A previous study reported that many young people do not understand the danger posed by COVID-19, claiming that only the elderly and people with compromised immune systems were dying from the disease (Kreitz 2020). In addition, previous studies have associated male adolescents with risk-taking behaviours (Cobey et al. 2013; Duell et al. 2018; Pawlowski, Atwal & Dunbar 2008; Zhong et al. 2020).

One of the major limitations of this study is that the findings are not representative of all university students in Nigeria, given that the sample was drawn from a single university. Although students’ age and gender were representative of demographics of a typical Nigerian university, the sample generally does not reflect the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity across the country. Another limitation is that not all the students would have access to the questionnaire if they had returned home at the time of the distribution of the questionnaire, as they may not have had internet or WiFi in their homes.

Majority of the Nigerian university students who took part in the survey displayed knowledge of COVID-19, which translated into positive attitudes and compliance with safety practices, which are paramount in curbing the spread of the infection. The interaction between knowledge and attitudes leading to positive behaviours and adherence has been linked to how information was presented. Although this study was conducted before the development of vaccines, health advocacy activity participation, safe environments and strong relationships between students and caregivers could also play a role in influencing attitudes and behaviour.