Dear Actors Guild of Nigeria, Don’t Reward Bad Behaviour -By Jeff Okoroafor

The Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) last week had an investiture on patrons and the unveiling of their dream secretariat. They used the opportunity to announce the names of their new patrons. So there I was over the weekend in Zaria, going through the videos and pictures and saw something very disturbing – the image of Elisha Abbo as one of the newly selected patrons.

How many of you still remember Elisha Abbo, the Senator from Adamawa State? The one who was found in a sex shop in Abuja. The one who violently assaulted one of the sales girls in the shop and was threatening her with a police officer attached to him. The one that people had to go on social media to demand for justice. The one that was nicknamed ‘the slapping senator”. The one officially known in the Senate as Elisha Abbo. He has been selected as one of the new patrons of the Actors Guild of Nigeria.

When you appoint a patron it is sometimes because the patron has something to be leverage on, it can be financial gain, moral gain, or in the case of a guild like the Actors Guild of Nigeria, a brand gain. As far as I can see, there’s no ‘brand’ in Elisha Abbo to be gained from and I’ve been asking myself when and how the AGN got here? What sort of evil possessed the minds of the Guild’s leadership to even consider adding the name of Elisha Abbo in the first place? How can an organisation widely considered bold and responsible allow itself to be caught up in a mess like this? Why will an organisation like the AGN celebrate and honour a man like Elisha Abbo, a woman violator? A man that has no self-respect, no character, no sense of honour or discipline. Did the leadership of the AGN not know that having someone like Elisha Abbo on that line up will make a mess and devalue the personality of other notable individuals there? I have seen the list of members of the AGN, and I know for a fact that there are people with unshakeable integrity and character, and so how does the leadership of the Guild imagined they’d feel seeing Elisha Abbo’s name as a Patron of the Guild that they are part of?

According to research, almost any behaviour that is learned through reinforcement can be eliminated if the reward is withheld long enough. It is an established fact that unreinforced behaviour will eventually disappear. The reason our politicians continue to swim in the pool of their recklessness and bad behaviour is because we the people constantly reinforce their actions through rewards. As long as this remains the case, there will be more Elisha Abbo, more notoriously entitled politician or elite class that thinks it’s okay to assault somebody just because they disagree on something.

My advice to the leadership of the AGN is simple, remove Elisha Abbo’s name from that patron list. He does not qualify to be a patron of an organisation with people whose duty and responsibility is to educate, entertain, and motivate into positive actions. I also call on all right thinking, mentally balanced, and honourable members of the Guild to stand up, speak up, and reject the person of Elisha Abbo as a patron of the Actors Guild of Nigeria.

We cannot continue to reward bad behaviour in Nigeria. Positive reinforcement creates more good behaviour and negative reinforcement creates more bad behaviour. We must learn to focus on the positive and not the negative. In an unjust society silence is a crime. Let’s all say no to this aberration.