People sometimes ask for the differences between a need and a want in business parlance. They want to know what makes “a need” take priority over “a want” at all times.
Basic secondary school economics says, a want is something you feel you should purchase but can absolutely survive or do without, while a need is something of great importance that you must have in order to function properly. This simple explanation not only distinguishes both but easily clarifies to right thinking individuals that the worth of a need and a want are as far as the east is from the west.
This brings us to the food for thought today and the question that has echoed in the minds of concerned Nigerians, which is ” how much is the Nigerian life really worth?… are we needed or should we exist simply because the government wants it to be so”…
While some in government may consider such question a rhetorical one, it is very important to carefully answer such question not just in words but in action especially when the bone of contention is the safety of lives and properties of compatriots whom we want to obey Nigeria’s call at any given time.
Although President Muhammadu Buhari has given the new Service Chiefs a timeline of weeks before rainy season to restore the sweet smell of peace to the nation , the urgency that is required in mitigating the prominence of banditry or the farmer-herder crisis in different parts of the country would need more than banning certain activities and declaring certain states “no fly zone”.
On Friday Nigerians had to hear another story of two farmers who were murdered by suspected herders in cold blood on their farm lands in Isaba Ekiti, in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
In what many have described as the usual occasion when horrifying things happen, the Governor of Ekiti State who doubles as the Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, Kayode Fayemi visited and offered condolences to the families of the bereaved regarding the killings he tagged “one too many”.
From the way the story was reported across the media, to the various reactions visible for all to see, one would not be wrong to conclude that these killings may have become a normal part of public daily discourse in such a manner that it has dulled its meaning.
How many must die before the life of a farmer means something? Or should we put the life of such persons under the category of “a want” even though farmers play critical roles in our society? Those at the helm of affairs need to look into their various mirrors and answer with the fear of God.
Some who greatly feel that the value of human life in our country barely counts for much, have proposed that the recurrent farmer-herder crisis calls for the federal government to end the centralization of the Nigerian police as this will give states the power to have police departments that can work in tandem with community policing.
According those who subscribe to this paradigm, such action would really make governors in charge of security in their respective states because the current trend of first having to make distress calls to Abuja to solve issues at one’s backyard needs to become a relic of a lost age.
As we wait for the new Service Chiefs to really hit the ground running, we must never allow the prevalence of insecurity make us lose sight of the value of one life on a farm or in the classroom. A Nigerian life is a need for the nation regardless of ones social background or creed. This is because if we cheapen the value of life, chaos would continue to be abound.
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