COPING TIPS FOR HASSLES OF BUSTLINGS; The “SORO-SOKE” Generation Saga

Yes, the economy has slipped into recession again. The fuel price has been hiked even twice in the space of few months. The crash of oil in the international market has plummeted Nigeria economy further. The naira exchange rate is at an all-time high. The End SARS protest and the wanton destructions by the hoodlums, did not only add more problems to the Nigeria economic woes, they may as well compromise the mental health of many Nigerian

The Birth of “Soro-Soke” Generation

With high rate of unemployment or under employments, frequent strike actions, university closure and government insensitivity to the plight of the people and police brutality, there came a time when the space for bottle-up anger, annoyance and resentments got filled and there is no more space to accommodate any additional issue then the bubble burst in the form of protest and demonstration as witnessed in the past weeks to enable the people ventilate and show their anger, annoyance and resentment towards government. The protesters were in two categories- the educated and uneducated.  Those who are educated were more organized, avoided violence and stated their demands clearly and peacefully but the uneducated ones stated their demands with violence which was witnessed all over the country in the recent weeks. Either way you look at it the two groups spoke and their messages were sounded loud and clear with the first group (original protesters) demanding an end to the status quo while the second group (looters and destroyers) sounded it loud and clear that there is hunger in the land and that a lot of able body young men are idle and needed to be engaged.

The behaviour of the protesters ordinarily looked abnormal to most people and the government who thought that by simply disbanding SARS the protest would stop, but they forgot the fact that children are what you make them. All forms of behaviour, according to some psychology theories, whether normal or abnormal is learnt. This basic concept of learning processes is believed to be the building blocks for behaviour formation.

Protest advantages

Nevertheless, it suffices to say that despite all the disruption witnessed during the protest, the narrative is not all negative as it is currently being conversed rather there are positive sides to the protest and it has implication for the following: –

• For those who were experiencing frustration, boredom and mild to moderate depression due to loss of job/unemployment, conflict with the family or other life events, joining the protest daily for about two weeks may serve a conscious activity that is capable of stimulating and lifting their mood, hence the protest served as a therapy for them. Research as shown that increased emotional and behavioral stimulation have the tendency to activate the mood of persons experiencing mild to moderate depression.
• For those experiencing learned helplessness and contemplating suicide, it may serve as diversionary therapy to break the chain of suicidal thoughts and behaviour thereby reduce the tendency of being critical of self and others.
• Participating in a well-organized and successful protests could enable the development of altruism which is a way of recognizing affective change in psychotherapy and possibly lead to an increased self-worth by the participants
• Participating in a protest helps the participants to relieve tension and release bottled-up emotion thereby reducing or defraying negative energies that would have been used to cause mayhem and violent crises in the family or society at large.
• For those protesters who had personal experience of police brutality, the protest served as a means of justice and closure for them because the “almighty Police or SARS” are being called to answer for their crimes against them and their family members. This brought them the needed relieve to the emotional pain, it also served as a means to healing the emotional injury they have suffered for years in silence.
• For the police and the Nigerian government, the protest served as reality testing for them because for the first time their authority and policies are being challenged by the masses hence the phase “power belongs to the people was put to test/action”

The above positives of the protest, gave birth to slogan such as “we are the soro soke generation”, “we are faceless but faithful” and “we are not lazy youth” all of which attested to the development of altruism in the participants. By and large, a look at how they arrived at these slogans in a crowd of unrelated individuals will answer many questions of how it all started. According to convergence theory of crowd, crowd behaviour is not a product of crowd; rather the crowd is a product of coming together of like-minded individuals with similar beliefs and behavioral dispositions; hence the individual in a crowd behaves just as he would have behaved when alone. It also, holds that crowd is formed by people of similar dispositions and that their actions are only reinforced and intensified by the crowd. Additionally, convergence theory of crowd posited that crowd behaviour is not irrational rather, people in the crowd express pre-existing beliefs and values so that the mob reaction is the rational product of widespread popular feelings within the group.

This theory explains why the real protesters were well organized, peaceful and focused in their approach to the protest, they are a crowd or congregation of educated like-minded individuals who had either suffer police brutality directly or indirectly through the experience of their friends and family members and significant others. They are people who have been taking advantage of by the SARS operatives and are tired of the status quo. Their crowd is focused, with rational beliefs and actions which are reinforced and intensified by their coming together; these enable them to function in such a way that there is no need for emergence of a leader to give direction rather any member of the crowd can adequately discuss and argue the issue at hand excellently well. Therefore, the protesters are a group of individuals united by common negative experiences suffered in the hands of the police with similar desire to speak-up against police brutality which explains why there was no incident of looting and destruction property among them.

Conversely, the shooting at the Lekki tollgate brought a new twist in the protest and whether people die or not during the incident is a question that time will answer. One fact that must be taken out of here is that people witnessed the shooting and many of them may end up having recurrent flashbacks, frequent nightmares, anxiety and obtrusive thoughts relating to the events, these are capable of causing a dysfunction or disruption in their daily activities and qualifies them to initially merit the diagnosis of acute stress reaction and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) later. The implication of this is that all those who witness the shooting needs to be encouraged to seek psychological help.

The Hoodlums in the mix

As the news of the shooting spread so was the spread of spontaneous anger and uproar directed at the government and their perceived cronies nationwide. This development brought in another group of crowd which was comprised of hoodlums, thugs and other criminal elements in the society who cashed-in on the anger and uproar directed at the government and their perceived cronies to hijack the peaceful protests and turned it to a bloody one. Although, the group was neither structured nor organized, they left behind a tale of looting and destruction of public and private properties which resulted in to several loss of life, burning of several police stations, looting of public and private warehouses and attacks on several banks and other financial institutions nationwide. An attempt at understanding this crowd revealed that the crowd used what is referred to as mob psychology to achieve the extent of damage and destruction so witnessed. According to crowd psychology theory, individuals in the crowd lose their sense of self and personal responsibility which is heavily induced by the anonymity of the crowd.. Therefore, it can be concluded that the group that hijacked and usurped the original protest to their advantage had a bad intention and that they only hid under the crowd to commit their atrocities.

A review of the magnitude and the extent of damage and carnage left behind as seen or heard is capable of initiating trauma in many individuals let alone those who are direct recipient of the experience. Therefore, it is expected that the percentage of people currently experiencing trauma or acute stress reaction as a result of the incident will be high and effort aimed at mitigating or coping with the effect of the trauma should be the focus of every stake holder. This is very important because every trauma required attention no matter how small or big to mitigate the psychological effect of trauma associated with the experience knowing fully well that it has the tendency to resulting in to serious psychological and behavioural issues on the long run with very huge human, financial and economic implications for the country.

The Coping Tips

The following psychological tips may be helpful in coping and alleviating the trauma witness or experience, heard or seen at the individual level

1. Reach-out to one another
2. Call to check on one another and do that regularly
3. Regularly ventilate your emotions and ensure no carry-over or bottled up emotion exist within you
4. Stay calm and don’t panic
5. Regulate or reduce the amount of time spent on television and phone
6. Recreational activities and Exercise are good, please engage in them regularly
7. Avoid trying to cope instead seek professional help
8. Avoid the use of substance and alcohol because it will compound your problem and it will lead to DEATH

D-        Outright death either through overdose or by impairing your judgment to kill yourself

E –       it will cause you emotional problem much more than what you are trying to avoid

A –       It will make you to be aggressive and involve in unnecessary and unreasonable fight or action which you will regret later

T –       Total loss of control over everything you have i.e. money, health, education, occupation etc.

H –       Hopelessness.

A review of all the above revealed the following as the foundation of all these challenges

1. No forum or platform to frequently engage the government
2. A lot of people are struggling to meet-up physiological need or basic necessaries of life
3. Government penchant to taking the citizens for granted
4. Government agencies now take advantage of the citizens rather than supporting them

Intervention at the government level

1. There is the need for the government to create a forum through which citizens can constantly engage the government, this will reduce or eliminate tension and bottled up anger towards the government and invariably reduce protests and demonstrations.
2. There is the need for the government to intervene at the lowest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need otherwise known as physiological needs such as food, Clothing and shelter which incidentally are the need of 40% of the citizens living below the poverty line and struggling daily to meet up with the basic necessity of life
3. The government needs to make a conscious effort at fulfilling its promises to the people and honoring all agreements willingly entered in to with the people. The failure of this is what is responsible for the shooting of the peaceful protesters and mayhem that followed. This is so because if the government possesses the attribute of “trust” the peaceful protesters would have left the street after government pronouncement of the disbandment of SARS. Hence the government should be held responsible for the looting and destruction.
4. The creation of Servicom, National human Right Commission and Code of Conduct Bureau is commendable but there is the need for all these agencies to rejigged and strengthened so that they will be able to carry out their duties of monitoring service delivery and human right abuses effectively because if that have been done in the first place the issue of police brutality would have been addressed long ago.
5. The issue of social security and unemployment benefit should be revisited. Government must make conscious effort at domesticating and implementing it in Nigeria to cushion the effect of youth unemployment.
6. There is the need for the national orientation agency to come out with various programmes aimed at reorientation for the youth and other citizens alike to dousing the current tension because the cyberspace in Nigeria is awash with fake news which are so inciting and capable of causing genocide.
7. There is the need to develop a national psyche project for Nigeria which will define clearly the country value system which will determine where the country is going in terms of education, health, politics, morals, infrastructures, economy to mention but few. With that every citizen knows where the country is heading whether individually, in a group or in a crowd such that it will guide people actions even in a crowd.
8. Lastly, there is the need to consciously reduce the number of out of school children.

Aroyewun B. A (PhD) Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Lagos