Russia, Ukraine and the innocents

Today is another Monday and I am striving to be happy. But I am not. Life is not looking up. In my country and beyond, things are not normal. As regards the latter, my specific reference is to the ongoing war and running sore between Russia and Ukraine. As the gory scenes continue to unfold, one is forced to reflect on the human dimensions – The wastage of lives – on both sides comes vividly to mind here.

Thus far, many civilians have been killed. And talking of the human dimensions, I often indulge in one or two fantasies. Something tells me that the dead and dying on both sides of the divide are not primary relatives of the actors in this sad drama. For Putin, it is all about the resurgence of Russian hegemony. His son is not doing the dying. And very much the same thing can be said for his daughter. What is being said here also goes for the Ukrainian leader – Zelensky.

Q: In almost every aspect of global life and living, Russia has been at the receiving end of various sanctions. In contemporary international relations, the only near-comparison was the situation in apartheid South Africa. But the situation is not quite the same

Again, his preoccupations are as abstract as those of Putin. So, as the body count mounts on both sides, cease fire is the last thing on the minds of both sides. Again, how about the destruction of physical facilities, particularly in Ukraine. It will take years to rebuild them.

Through it all, however, and for some people, it is not all gloom. The arms’ merchants on both sides are smiling to the banks. The world of scholarship has a more elevated name for these traders of death. They are called: The Military Industrial Complex. So, while a lot of people are wailing, some in reality are elated. An aspect of the drama is also being played out in the antiseptic atmosphere of the United Nations.

Away from all the fighting and the dying is the United Nations Human Rights Council. On this platform, a motion was tabled to expel Russia since she is deemed to be a violator of Human Rights in the ongoing war. This particular episode had all the trappings of a theatre with the various countries seeking to hold their grounds as regards voting via-a-vis their respective national interests. At the end of the day, about three or four categories of votes emerged, in relation to whether Russia should be expelled. Those who abstained; those who voted against, and those who voted for the expulsion.

As is well known by now, those in the last category managed to get their way, and Moscow has since been expelled from the UNHRC. But even then, this has not ended the war. Very much the same thing can be said about the sanctions. In almost every aspect of global life and living, Russia has been at the receiving end of various sanctions. In contemporary international relations, the only near-comparison was the situation in apartheid South Africa. But the situation is not quite the same.

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Indeed, some interesting comparisons and even contradictions abound. In the case of apartheid South Africa, the drive for sanctions against her was led by the Afro-Asian countries, with some measure of support from the Eastern countries. On this score, the West balked and did everything possible to blunt the edge of sanctions against apartheid South Africa.

Spokespersons from the West also emerged who spoke to the futility of sanctions. According to them, sanctions do not work. That they are double-edged. In any case, they argued that, sanctions even hurt the black populace, whose concern happens to be the object of the entire exercise. But today, the same social forces who obstructed sanctions then, are the contemporary wielders of the self-same sanctions. And they have been very absolute about it.

But even then, as sanctions go, they can easily be blunted by the existence and provision of alternatives. The bottom line, as advanced by scholars, is that, even though sanctions may not be as potent, yet they in their own way, convey a measure of displeasure to the target of the sanctions. The target in this case is Russia. But Moscow is holding its grounds partly because some other powerful countries like China and India are not persuaded along the sanctions-wielding game. So, the blood-letting invariably continues.

The war has also shown up the systemic and inter-related character of the international system. Beyond the two combatants, other countries are also contending with the fall-outs of this evolving tragedy. Take the foreign students, on whose platform, Nigeria is ably represented in view of certain conditions at home.

All of a sudden many Nigerian students have had their schooling interrupted. At the moment, they are virtually refugees in other European countries, possibly waiting for when the war will end; so that they can take back their lives. Even then, and if the newspaper reports are anything to go by, the Nigerian and other African students have been treated differently from the rest of the students. The pigmentation is still so important. It continues to be a huge determiner despite professions and protestations to the contrary.

And for those students, who have chosen to come back, life continues to be a torment. The hope was that, they would probably be placed in universities at home here. But even then, and as is well known, the universities here are contending with closure. The teachers and other workers are currently on strike. It is really a case of double jeopardy. In the foreign country, the Nigerian student has been displaced, only to find that back home, resettlement is impossible, given the conditions here.

Meanwhile, one of these students in a Freudian way appears to have anticipated this situation when he declared that Nigeria was a no-go area for him. This was in spite of the terrible conditions spawned by the ongoing war around him. Indeed and as memorably put by Femi Osofisan: Home hurts. Home is where the hurt is. Such hurts are also vividly reflected in the price of staples.

The price of bread is on the rise, since Ukraine is a major supplier of wheat to many African countries. And in a place life Sudan, the issue goes beyond price rises. It is grim, so grim that the talk is about famine, as indirectly spawned by the war. The entire situation brings to mind one memorable photograph. In the said graphic, was this lone and stranded boy, with a vacant look. The caption was that; he got in the way of someone’s war.

Yes, and indeed, this is someone’s war, but the consequences continue to be horrendous for many innocent by-standers within Ukraine and the rest of the world.