In military parlance, they have a term referred to as collateral damage. When the military is in pursuit of an enemy, there may be the tendency for the bullet to hit an unintended person, if the victim is unwittingly in the way of harm. The bullet was not intended for them but it hits them in the process of pursuing the enemy. In recent times, the activities of politicians in Rivers and Imo states have resulted in collateral damage. In both states, violence seems to be the new order. In Imo, there was an election, wherein Senator Hope Uzodinma would validate his second tenure.
There were also elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states. Imo never used to have a consistent record of political violence until in recent times when activities of ‘unknown gunmen’ escalated and made the place frighteningly insecure. Uzodimna consistently attributed the bloodshed in that land to politically motivated action.
We shall return to the matter of Imo State. This piece was stirred by what I consider collateral damage from recent political incidents in Rivers State, where there were skirmishes between Governor Sim Fubara and his emergent godfather, immediate past governor of the state, Nyesom Wike. The former governor fell out with his successor over an undisclosed matter, which resulted in moves to impeach Fubara by members of the House of Assembly loyal to the Wike. He still holds the ace in the political calculations of the state. The move resulted in the governor’s supporters mobilizing the ordinary people to march on the streets in support of the new helmsman. One Onyekachi Ugiri, who sold foodstuff at the Creek Road market, allegedly joined the protest in defence of the incumbent governor to move against the impeachment. Peace in the city was threatened such that markets allegedly began to be deserted given that people scampered to safety. The security agencies swung into action to restore normalcy, but they needed to apply some force in the process. That was how the Anambra State-born Onyeka became the human collateral damage in the bid to return peace to the city. The circumstances surrounding his death are not clear, but what is certain is that he either joined the protest or was scampering to safety.
Whatever the circumstance, the critical thing is that the 27-year-old trader has been cut in mid-stream. The Ihiala, Anambra State-born trader who sold foodstuff has ended his stay abruptly as collateral damage to the activities of politicians who seem to deploy other human beings as cannon fodder for bullets heading their way. A quarrel between two politicians, details of which we do not know and may never know, has become the harbinger of death for this young man who may not even have been a member of any of the warring parties. I had written penultimate week in the piece titled”When tomorrow comes” that Governor Sim Fubara ought to have expected that his predecessor, who broached all odds the put him in power, would intervene in his government. Wike still wants to be the political leader in Rivers State. He does not make pretensions about it. He has made it clear that he would not tolerate any attempt to truncate the political structure he has put in place in that state. The matter appears to have calmed down perhaps to the point of peaceful settlement but the collateral damage, in the form of human life, is dire.
The incidental damage of political fights in the country is heavy most of the time. I recall the political quarrel early in this current republic, between one governor in the South East and his godfather, which became so serious that the state was torn in the middle politically. At some point, a reconciliation meeting became inevitable. The godfather gave a condition that the commissioner for information must be fired for peace to reign. The poor commissioner bore the brunt of two fighting elephants. Human beings become cannon fodder for their fight, and some of them bite the dust in the process. I am delighted that in last Saturday’s gubernatorial elections no one was used as human collateral. In the past, incidents of violence were rampant on such days. I had gone to cover elections in a particular state in the South-South where a commissioner acted like the field commander of the squad deployed to disrupt elections wherever the odds did not go in favour of the incumbent. He was on the phone deploying his men to battle, as it were. At the end of that election his boss won but one or two people were sent to the world beyond. Delight best describes last Saturday’s gubernatorial election, given that it did not go the way of most in terms of violence. No gunshots were reported, to the best of information available to me. The matter of over-voting or written results is grievous for our democracy but it cannot compare with loss of lives. It portends retrogression that the process makes little steps in advancement and quantum leaps in misdemeanor. There were reports of votes that showed 90 percent voter turnout for an election that followed one where lots of people sulked for disappointment. The irony of the situation would be that voters would turn out in their numbers. The malfeasance attendant to that election is an indication of the characters executing our elections. This is not to exonerate people in other sectors or politicians who would forge documents and seek to get into office with them. Those who wrote the results and released the result sheets before the polls are not politicians. The rot is deep, which is why a society gets the kind of leaders it deserves.