ATTORNEY GENERAL ADOKE: SUBSIDIZE THREATS WITH CAUTION

ATTORNEY GENERAL MOHAMMED BELLO ADOKE

Anti-fuel subsidy protesters have expanded their rage to include angry acts against corruption and gross financial mismanagement by a few wealth Nigerians in the face of lingering struggle by a majority of Nigerians.

Many Nigerians including civil servants who are being threatened by Attorney General Mohammed Bello Adoke to return to work or face salary forfeiture are already suffering from repressed bitterness and displeasure. These words of the Attorney General are gravely intolerable to the ears of an angry worker or laborer at this time.

The report that the Attorney General is also accusing  protesting workers of disobeying lawful court orders sends contradictory message as the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim  is showering protesters with  praises for being peaceful and differentiating them from troublemakers.

With rising temper at this delicate period, any  official words viewed by the already helpless workers and other tensed protesters as intimidating could open up feeling that could further annoy, provoke, incense, infuriate, and enrage them.

There is currently intense psychological anger and not to try to be aware of the underlying emotions of the protest lives room for full-blown conflict and damaged relationships with the government.

As the days of protest get longer with the themes of the strike centered around corruption and financial waste by wealth public and private officials the rage could then turn to  low tolerance for frustration, and thereafter anything goes—chaos, pandemonium, turmoil and mobocracy.

Law enforcement officials known for their poor wages and weak social welfare conditions could in the short term watch out for the government but as temper and pressure swells up, helplessness sets into them.

With built-in-irritability, some police officers may open gunfire sporadically, shoot at protesters nervously, fall victim to mob violence  and some officers might even begin to sympathize with the circumstances involving the murder of some protesting victims.
Since protesters and other marchers will continue demonstration for the removal of oil subsidy, torturing words from government officials should be lessened, and widespread police brutality should be avoided drastically.

As part of de-escalation strategies the security officials must learn to listen to protesters’ demands in order to calm situations that could erupt into acts of police violence, the making of local anarchists and the creation of factional violence as well as causing widespread lawlessness.

*** John Egbeazien Oshodi, Ph.D, is  the Secretary-General of the Nigeria Psychological Association (NPA), Abuja. Jos5930458@aol.com.