The concept of assigning a price tag to a life has always made people intensely squeamish. After all, isn't it degrading to presume that money can make a family whole again? And what of the disparities? What is the worth of a poor man’s life compared to that of a rich man? With the effect of environmental degradation and pollution what is life worth in the Niger Delta compared to Abuja? 

A recent United States of America Environmental Protection Agency report put the value of an American life as 6.9 million dollars which I understand has even depreciated from the previous 7.8 million dollars- almost a million dollar decrease about 5 years ago. Americans are shouting and asking why and whether it is because of the depreciation in the value of the dollar. At least they are asking questions!! This made me wonder what a life is worth in Nigeria from Kula to Kaura Namoda.

When any Government decides which regulations to create and enforce, just like any business deciding to pursue a project, it runs a cost-benefit analysis. Therefore before we shrug this off as bureaucratic number crunching, consider this: the less value a government places on human lives, the less need for regulation to protect and preserve those lives. Why? Because when government considers new regulations, they first determine the value of a human life and then compare the economic cost of implementing the proposed rule against the benefit of the lives it could save. This is the truth about Government policies. So does this tell a story about Nigeria? The question is there for all of us to answer.

In Nigeria I wonder whether human life is just a dream, from which we are never really awake, as some great thinkers claim. Are we submerged by our feelings, by our loves and hates, by our ideas of good, bad, beautiful, and awful? Are we incapable of knowing beyond those ideas and feelings? Or we are just concerned about self preservation and perpetuation?

With all the happenings in the current dispensation of numerous preventable deaths in Nigeria; from plane crashes, road traffic accidents killing soldiers and civilians, pre employment deaths, post employment deaths i.e. pensioners queuing up for their pensions and dying in the process, harvest of deaths in churches, political assassinations, deaths from communal clashes to Niger Delta youths killing soldiers and innocent people one is asking how much is a life worth in Nigeria? What of when parents and children of politicians or well-to-do individuals are kidnapped and ransom placed on them. What really dictates the value of the ransom?

For isn't the worth of a life the most profound and elusive mystery of them all, unknown to even the greatest minds in Nigeria? As it stands surely anyone who tells you they have the answer is joking, mad or simply mistaken.

In Nigeria, life is like a concert: if we want to know why we are here, we can look backwards or forwards, and the answers we get, or fail to get, are very different and satisfy different needs.

It is perhaps surprising how often it is assumed that a look back to our origins will lead us to understanding the worth life. It certainly did not work out that way for Victor Frankenstein's creation. He was desperate to know where he had come from and, unlike us, he discovered the awful truth. Yet the revelation did not shed light on his life's worth, it just pissed him off.

In Nigeria, it appears lives differ in value -- and so do deaths. In this disparity lies an important reason why various political elites and those in governance have found it difficult to put things right for the majority.

Who bears responsibility for these Nigerian deaths? Is it the Niger Delta fighters pulling the triggers? The morally bankrupt political elites who in the first place sought to kill their opponents and now see no choice but to press on?  Or is it the culture that, to put it mildly, has sought neither to understand nor to empathize with people in Nigeria?

There appear to be no easy answers, but one at least ought to acknowledge that in our failure to provide basic amenities advertised and promised during political campaigns exemplifies the high-minded expression of Nigerian idealism. As such, we have waded into a swamp of moral ambiguity. This may be the reason why we keep running to God and leaving undone those things which we ought to do. There was a newspaper report that our past president did refer us to God for our electricity problems. I thought God said seek and ye shall find? To assert that "stuff happens," as some past leaders and politicians are wont to do whenever events go awry, simply does not suffice. We must take responsibilities and own up to our failures as well as learn from them.

Have we been unfair to our selves? Of course yes. It's not that we have no regard for Nigerian lives; it's just that we have much less regard for them. The current approaches to developmental policies make the point. Most of our well meaning policies are only on paper and never see the light of the day when it comes to implementation. And of course even when we know what is wrong through enquiries we relax and turn it to business as usual.

For all the talk of Nigeria being a democratic nation, a few cabals decide what an average Nigerian life is worth. And so we can understand why the value will be very low as they do not seem to care about the generality of the people. And although all our leaders have remarked in different contexts that "every human life is a precious gift of matchless value," their actions in Nigeria continue to convey the impression that lives aren't worth all that much.

That impression urgently needs to change. To start, we must get over its aversion to providing the basic needs to live life. It needs to measure in painstaking detail -- and publicly -- the mayhem we are causing as a byproduct of what we call democratic dividend. Nigeria is a rich country and one would expect that the value of a life will be that rich. But as Socrates said if a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it." Finally, let us remember that "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it."  

Robot  # 1 | 28.03.2009 02:46

The concept of assigning a price tag to a life has always made people intensely squeamish. After all, isn't it degrading to presume that money can make a family whole again? And what of the disparities? What is the worth of a poor man’s life compared to that of a rich man? With the effect of environmental degradation and pollution what is life worth in the Niger Delta compared to Abuja?...Read the full article.

Profegee  # 2 | 28.03.2009 06:54

LOS ANGELES (AP) — By SOLANGE REYNER It took him a year, but Eddie Chambers is back in title conversation. Chambers landed solid straight punches all night, outboxing former heavyweight champion Samuel Peter to win a majority decision Friday at the Nokia Theatre. Chambers, who has won four straight since losing an IBF title eliminator, turned it up in the ninth round, landing several hard shots and cutting Peter (30-2, 23 KOs) on his lower lip. Peter, who lost the WBC title to Vitali Klitschko last October, had trouble getting through Chambers' peek-a-boo defense and lost most of the rounds because he simply couldn't connect. "Defensively, I was happy about it," said Chambers, ranked third by the IBF. "He was a strong guy and he could punch and everything, but I'm a tough guy and I can fight with any heavyweight. I could take these shots just like anybody else." He didn't take many, though. When he did, Chambers acknowledged the shots with a grin before answering back. Peter, known for his punching power, didn't get an opportunity to land many. His corner yelled for him to move forward against Chambers, who refused to slug it out from the start. The Philly native, giving up 42 pounds, cut angles and didn't get caught on the ropes until the third round. He used his accurate jab to keep the distance and landed clean shots against Peter, who weighed 265 pounds, the most he'd ever been for a fight. Chambers was also heavier than normal, but used Peter's weight to his advantage. Peter was often chasing in the early rounds and got caught with shots when trying to cut off Chambers in the corners. The fight could set up a future title shot for Chambers (34-1, 18 KOs), whose loss to Alexander Povetkin set him back in his quest for a belt. "We'll fight anybody who has a championship belt around their waist," said Chambers' trainer, Rob Murray Sr. "He matches up best with anybody who is bigger, slower and older, and that includes everyone in the Klitscho family and Nikolai Valuev." Vitali holds the WBC title and his brother, Wladimir, has the WBO and IBF belt. Valuev is the champ in the WBA. One judge had the bout a draw, while the others had it 96-94 and 99-91 for Chambers. "I expected it to go a lot better, but winning the fight is a big thing," Chambers said. Peter, who lost his second straight, was disappointed with the judges' decisions. "I don't feel it's accurate. I don't agree with them," Peter said. "I feel I pressed Chambers the entire fight and I'll be back." Peter, who went back to former trainer Andy Anderson after losing his belt to Klitschko when he quit on his stool, looked sluggish toward the later rounds and only landed a flurry of punches in the waning seconds of the 10th round. By then, it was much too late. Chambers was already clearly ahead on most scorecards and Peter just couldn't match his speed, something he talked about keying on before the bout. Peter said he would prove to everyone that he wasn't solely a power puncher against Chambers, who also changed trainers after the Povetkin. But Chambers didn't get touched very often, landing hard straights throughout and using his defense to set up counters, especially double jabs and rights in the ninth round. Chambers said he didn't throw as many combinations because of a right thumb injury in the fourth. He jammed it while throwing shots. "I landed some big shots. If I would have been just a little more aggressive I would have had more points," Chambers said. "A lot of people don't think my punches can hold a strong, tough guy like Sam Peter at bay. But I proved that I could wobble him a bit, make him shaky and make him leery of my power. I just have to pick up the aggressiveness. "I'm a smart fighter — sometimes I think too much and I think that's what made the fight closer on one of the scorecards. The thumb hurt me a little, but I wasn't going to allow something like that take me out of it." Visit here for more informa...