USING APPROPRIATE
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY TO EXPLAIN BEHAVIOUR OF THE GRAND COMMANDER OF ARMED
FORCES OF REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA IN SOME INSTANCES FROM MAY 29TH 2011
TILL DATE.
INTRODUCTION
EARLY
LIFE AND PRESIDENCY
Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, GCFR, BNER, GCON (born 20 November 1957) is the 14th Head of
State and current President of Nigeria. Prior
to his role as President, he served as Governor of Bayelsa State and
Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Jonathan is a member of the
ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).
Jonathan
was born in what is now Bayelsa State to a family of canoe makers.
Jonathan holds a B.S. degree in Zoology in which he
attained Second Class Honours. He holds a M.Sc. degree in Hydrobiology and
Fisheries biology, and a Ph.D. degree in Zoology from the University
of Port Harcourt.
He worked as an education inspector, lecturer, and environmental-protection
officer. He entered politics in 1998.
Jonathan and his wife Patience have two children. He is a
Christian. He comes from the Ijaw.
On
15 September 2010, the president announced on Facebook that he had decided to
run for reelection. This made him the first Nigerian president to declare his
re-election bid via social media. It was a northern Muslim candidate's turn to
run for the presidency.
He
won with 77.7% of valid votes cast.On 18 April, Jonathan was declared the
winner of the election and was sworn in on May 29th 2011. His
victory was, however, followed by violence in the north over claims of vote rigging.
DECISIONS IN CONTROVERSIAL SCENARIOS
AND POPULACE REACTIONS
1.
Ministerial
nominations and appointments
In
2011, the Nigerian President failed to nominate and appoint at least 36
indigenes (one for each of the 36 states). This is in breach of article 147
subsection (3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999:
"...the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who
shall be an indigene of such State".
2. Removal of fuel subsidy
On
13 December 2011, the 2012 fiscal year's budget removed any provisions for fuel
subsidy. The issue of fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria has always been a
controversial topic. According to a poll carried out by the Alliance for
Credible Elections (ACE- Nigeria), 80% of Nigerians opposed the plan to remove
fuel subsidy.
On 1 January 2012, the Jonathan administration
announced the start of a controversial plan to end fuel subsidies. Many
prominent Nigerians have spoken out against the removal of fuel subsidy by the
Jonathan administration. Former Petroleum Minister Professor Tam David-West has
spoken out and expressed concern that the planned removal of fuel subsidy will
squeeze the economy, increase inflation, and hurt both businesses and the
public.
A
former military Head of State and a former Minister for Petroleum & Natural
Resources, General Buhari, urged President Jonathan not to remove fuel subsidy
and to tackle corruption.
General
Yakubu Gowon, another former military Head of State, has warned the government
that the country's infrastructure should be revived before fuel subsidy removal
steps are taken.
Former
military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, joined millions of Nigerians
protesting against the removal of fuel subsidy by the Jonathan administration,
saying that the action is ill-timed.
Following
the The Nigeria Labour Congress' warning that the country faces many strikes,
the country unions followed up with strikes that were matched with civil
protests from 9–13 January 2012. Protesters and groups called for President
Jonathan to resign over the removal of fuel subsidies. After five days of
national protests and strikes, on 16 January, Jonathan announced that the pump
price of petroleum would be 97 naira per liter.
3. 1st October 2010 Independence Day Bomb Blast
During
his South African magistrate court trial on 2 May 2012, MEND's (Movement for
the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) former leader Henry Okah came out and insisted that
President Jonathan masterminded bomb attacks. He told the court that President
Jonathan and his aides organised the October 1, 2010 independence day bomb
attacks in Abuja in a desperate political strategy to demonize political
opponents, including the former military President General Ibrahim Babangida,
and to win popular sympathy ahead of the 2011 elections.
The
Nigerian Presidency has denied the allegations of terrorism levelled against
President Jonathan. A media statement was issued on 2 May 2012, acknowledging
the accusations from Okah. The statement went on to say that: “The Presidency
categorically affirms that these allegations are false in their entirety and
without any factual foundation." The Presidency also expressed no interest
in commenting further for the time being, but plans to "make a full
representation on the matter to the court when the trial opens."
4. Renaming of the University of Lagos
In
May 2012, President Jonathan changed the name of the University
of Lagos, renaming
it the Moshood Abiola University in honour of the late MKO
Abiola. The action
drew attention from critics -- among them were pro-Abiola advocates and parties
involved with the university. Some critics cited that the President did not
submit an appropriate bill to the legislature for the change; that the
University's brand name should not be tampered with. The UNILAG Alumni
Association commented that although they do not have prejudice against MKO
Abiola, they were concerned "that neither the Governing Council nor the
University Senate nor any other stakeholder was consulted before the change was
announced." Bola
Tinubu
congratulated Jonathan for taking action, but urged him to "do it
right", adding that "we must be careful not to localise or
sectionalise MKO". The President has attempted to regularize the renaming
of the school by submitting a bill for an amendment of the University's
establishing law to the legislature.
THEORIES TO EXPLAIN
THE PRESIDENT DECISION IN ABOVE NAMED CONTROVERY SCENARIOS
1.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT THEORY
This theory is mostly associated
with organizational context. Is simply the relationship between an employer and
the employee, in which speaks about the mutual expectations of inputs and
outcomes between both parties involved.
Is also seen as the
stand-point/feeling of employees which is attributed to the following:
·
How
the employee is being treated by the employer.
·
What
the employee puts into the job.
This theory is mostly used also with
change management, which can be translated into the governmental world of
Nigeria as a whole. The GCFR is seen as the employer while the populace is the
employees. The way decisions are taken is contingent on the feelings of the
population. The manner of executing his decisions at such crucial controversial
scenarios has graving effects on the population making the population to take
to the streets as a means to protest such ill-treatment by the GCFR.
Comprehensively, the theory explains
why people holding the reins of power must take caution when making decision
which affects the lives of the masses. Proper consideration must be taken into
account amidst other “tread slow strategies” when making such decisions and
reactions to such event/happenings/incidents.
Hence,
his reaction (GCFR) was uncalled for, not that it is not good but because it
fails in the following points:
·
No
proper consideration of the effects on the lives of the masses
·
It
was ill-timed and so on.
2.
PSYCHOLOGICAL –COERCIVE THEORY
This theory was jointly propounded
by G.Patterson and M. Sidman. The idea behind this theory is twin in nature.
That most people or individuals get overwhelm with power when they gets it and
seems to influence their subordinates the way they like without proper
consideration of how they feel. The other end is that they (leader) make use of
coercive means to obtain compliance/obedience from their subordinates.
Coercion- is the practice of forcing
another party to act in an involuntary manner (whether through
action/inaction), might involve use of threats/intimidation or other forms of
pressure to get obedience.
Psychological-coercive theory tries
to explain why people engage in a negative behaviour to seek adherence of a
social outcome and which other individual responds in an equally negative
fashion- all these exchange results to increase in intensity until some of them
gives up.
