2015 Elections: What's The Worth Of A Human Life In Nigeria? By Showunmi Rex

On that miserable night on Tuesday, 25th of February, 2014 at the FGC Buni Yadi in Yobe, 59 boys went to bed only to wake up in eternity. Their offence? They were the turf where two elephants fought. Unfortunately, the elephant that was supposed to protect them suffered mental arthritis, lacking the clairvoyance to preempt misfortunes. Consequently, at that spring season of their lives when the quest for meaning gathers momentum, they met an abrupt confiscation. If they were like boys of their age I meet often in Lagos, they may have spent the night gusting about the lofty dreams for the future, about becoming another Zuckerberg, Bruno Mars or Ronaldo. Part of their convo would be the hope of finishing high school, taking up a University degree and carving a niche in a highly competitive world of varieties. Those dreams are gone now. They have become like a vapor in the mist of time. How disheartening!

Obviously, they may not have voted in any election but how would they have known that a pan-Nigerian sympathy vote for one guy with a touching story of grass to grace would, in a way, affect their being. Believing the story of a boy resembling that of a southern version of Almajiri's rise to power became the beginning of the strife traceable to what further hastened their transition to the great beyond.

If there is anything those boys had in abundance,   it was the courage to be devoured with a passion for intellectual exploits. The bombs that rocked the northeast couldn't disrupt the intoxicating blues from the pursuit of excellence. The cynical ones out of them may have raised security concerns as other optimistic colleagues dissuade such fears with the soothing rhymes coming the captain of the city himself. His brags about a two months victory timeline would have deepened the trust they had in the power custodian. But they were wrong, and their families too. Some of us who thought things would have gotten better saw our folly at the end. We were wrong about him, as well.

If we had leaders not looters, we could have averted such tragedy. It is a big one that would hover around those who swore to protect the Nigerian child for a long while. To add insult to injury, while the families mourned, they partied! At a time we thought they had lost their humanity. Not until a grandmother got kidnapped, and the entire country stood still because her 'blood' is in government. Daughter lost her decorum, all the Harvard Management Training couldn't prevent her restlessness. So even the wicked knows what pain it is to lose a loved one yet trivialise the abduction of over 200 school girls?

This election is about the future. If the ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian why then are we hell bent on keeping everlastingly at power when it is glaring that we have lost goodwill? Folks, since the blood of any Nigerian is not worth the ambition of any political leader then let your vote avert "BuniYadi type “tragedies.”