The cost of collateral damages

OPINION: The Cost of Collateral Damages - Tobby Adebiyi@ralph_d001

As the year rolls to an end, its time to take stock of what 2012 have offered us as individuals and as a nation. For Nigeria, the loss far outweighs the gains as it is almost impossible to point out any tangible accomplishment of the Jonathan administration in the last 12 months.

Top on the list of losses would be the innocent souls that was lost to the menace of Boko Haram. The chief of army staff Lt Gen AZUBIUKE IHERIRIKA Puts the number of people lost to the Boko Haram menace at 3000. 3000 destiny destroyed, 3000 families put into sorrow , 3000 lives wasted as a result circumstances that they are not actors in. They were just casualties.They were collateral damages.

Collateral damage is damage to things that are incidental to the intended target.

One of the oldest case of collateral damages was recorded in the bible and it was the story of job. Job as recorded in the bible was a man that was perfect and upright, feared God and eschew evil and he was the wealthiest man in the east until the heavenly politics between God and Satan set in to upturn his life. Job lost all his possessions including his sons, daughters and servants. Job’s household was the collateral damages in his travails

The Nigerian civil war recorded approximately 3million people dead because Gowon and Ojukwu could not get there acts together. 3 million people died because of the aspiration of a few. These are the casualties of war, the pawns in the game of life.

The rift between former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Senator Jim Nwobodo which lead to the closure of savannah bank is a good example to illustrate the proverb ‘when two elephant fights, its the grass that suffers”. Staffers of the then savannah bank left work Friday only to be told that their source of livelihood has been terminated on Monday. The hardship most of the staffers family experienced can only be imagined.

The politics of the high and mighty do affect the lives of the poor and lowly and the rod of the wicked most times do rest upon the lot of the righteous.

My late mom used to say a prayer in her native yoruba language ” eniti ibi ma kan to ma kan wa, ti olorun ma je ki ibi kan” for those that dont understand yoruba, it simply means ” whosoever evil will befall and we would be affected may God not allow such evil befall them. The assassination of juvenal Habyarimana and cyprien Ntaryamira presidents of Rwanda and Burundi respectively on april 6 1994 served as the catalyst for the rwanda genocide which lead to the murder of over 500,000 tutsi in 100 days. so we should not stop praying for our leaders because their actions or inactions will definitely affect us the followers lest we become casualties in their game for rulership.

Prayer alone isn’t enough, we must demand accountability, good ethical practices, efficiency, performance and good governance from our leaders.

My prayer as we enter the new year is, may we not be collateral damages in the politics played by the high and mighty.

- Tobby Adebiyi

Follow on twitter @ralph_d00