Caught in Crossfire: Lives Touched by Decisions They Didn't Make
More like a ripple effect, there is an igbo adage that says, “Ofu aka ruta mmanụ o zue ọra.” which simply means that when one hand touches oil, it spreads to the others. In essence, when one person in a group is affected, everyone feels the impact.
That is exactly what is going on and in all honesty, that's just how the world runs.
When a conflict breaks between countries, everybody is affected and even in the midst of the challenges, some persons still don't know the reason why they had to suffer because they don't even know what caused the conflict to start with, they simply find themselves entangled into what they know nothing about; simply casualties of decisions made in rooms they never even knew existed talk more of entering.
At the peak of such confrontations, Celebrities might get “cancelled,” , students abroad are attacked and meant to endure many abusive words, and even athletes or artists are banned from events because of decisions made by their governments. Just yesterday even, the Nigerian women's team going for World Cup playoff were harassed because of the killings going in our country, something they can absolutely do nothing about, which brings us to ask and answer the question, Is this fair?
Using my country as a reference, answering the question entails asking another question, who elects these leaders?
A justification to everyone having a bite in the suffering will always be the mindset that the leaders getting into office was a collective effort, it's assumed we gave them the baton of leadership and we trust the decisions they will make.
Also, it is believed the citizens of a country enjoy directly or indirectly from the good decisions their leaders make, so why won't they share in the bad decisions too?
But in reality, doesn't that argument fall apart when examined closely especially when it does not solve anything and not to talk of my country where the election is anything but free and fair election.
It is unfair to say the citizens should partake in the suffering of the decision the leaders who they never elected made, leaders who got their spot via godfatherism, manipulations and rigging.
Attacking the citizens of the country doesn't help in anyway ... Attacking them doesn't stop wars, it doesn't change policies, it doesn't even pressure leaders especially not in my country where the leaders don't even care about the citizens, so what exactly would you achieve? Nothing.
The better approach to achieve constructive result would be to separate the citizens from the leaders who made the rule and hold them accountable for the decision they made in anyway possible.
In summary, even though it wasn't our decision, we still have to bear the blunts of the bad decisions' effect, however, it is neither fair nor productive to make citizens suffer for the actions of their leader.
This is why free and fair election was meant to be the backbone of democracy but sadly, it doesn't exist in this part of the country and has proven to be out of reach.
Thanks for reading and have a good day ahead 👍