LETTER Public conscience versus the oppressors’ ‘ mascots’

SIR: Often times, society degenerates not because there are no la ws, norms and values governing it but because citizens fail to collectively stand up for one another against crime, oppression and injustices. This public inertia over vices that should dra w strong indignation is usually a product of ignorance, indifference, parochialism, fear and other negative social inclinations such as racism, ethnicism, religious intolerance, extremism, irresponsibility, unpatriotism, etc.

However, as remote these dispositions may appear , they are more causative of the degenerative ailment of society than the vices that they permit. In many cases, societal vices and crimes are symptomatic of public inertia which emboldens criminals and villains in their atrocities. Apparently, the people are ‘ complicit’ in the recur - rence of crime and oppression, for non- expression of public conscience through mass actions or behaviour which would have instigated the enactment, strengthening and enforcement of laws and norms.

More complicit and malicious are citizens who come in defence of oppression, crime and their perpetrators. They are social and political ‘ mascots’ who cheer on and embolden oppressors of the masses and villains of society. They are out on the streets, social/ conventional media and at other public arenas, justifying such atrocities as rape, genocide, racial and extra- judicial killings, etc. They are at political quarters adorning their political principals and idols with halos where horns have sprouted for oppressive leadership and poor performance; they are in counterprotests defending obvious wrongs done by their silhouetted sponsors; they are at sectional and tribal quarters welcoming looters and exconvicts as they return home with their booty - public resources which were diverted en route to the masses; they are also at some religious quarters finding no wrong with their brethren who come short of civility in dealing with their fellow citizens, etc. Their activities contribute immensely to the numbing of public conscience and propagation of crime, oppression and various injustices.

But the people must not allow their collective conscience to be stifled, if they desire a fair, just and safe society. It is public conscience that triggered the mass action in the USA over the cold- blooded killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota - an all- race populated protest, which has spread across the globe, against unjust killing of Blacks.

Emmanuel Ikechukwu Igbo.