By Denrele Animasaun

“We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”— Malcolm X

The Paris attacks made many people face the facts: the double standard that apparently exists when expressing outrage in the wanton terrorist activities that have become common place around the globe.  It seems that some lives are more important than others and now the rest of the world knows it.

Let me stress that all lives matter and any life lost so tragically, is a life too many. The tragedy of today is that many are facing this terror and it’s no longer happening in faraway lands. Our children are exposed to the daily diet of the news on terror and their childhood has been disrupted by the exposure to the heinous crimes by these deranged and delusional  psychopaths.

The 130 victims of the Paris attacks were mourned by France and many other countries across the world. Unfortunately, this horror was not the only one, there were lives lost in Lebanon, Pakistan and Nigeria, except that these countries were consigned to the corner of newspapers; nor was it given prominence and definitely not to the level of the Paris attack.

The social media played its role to give opportunity for many who wanted to show their support with tri- colour safety check features but they did not offer this feature when the bomb blasts hit Beirut and that suicide bombers killed at least 43 people the day before Paris came under siege. And there were five girls killed in Nigeria and Cameroon in suicide bombings.  And these attacks were claimed by the Islamic State and of course, Boko Haram. In Nigeria, there were multiple attacks by the Boko Haram in between causing countless victims. The outcry was muted in many parts of the developed nations and the rest of the other nations.

So we are all equal but some are more equal than others, it would seem.  So with the advent of instant communication, people took to the social media and registered their opinions. One which was from a Lebanese blogger Joey Ayoub: “These have been two horrible nights. The first took the lives of over 40 in Beirut, the second took the lives of over 100 in Paris. It also seems clear to me that to the world, my people’s deaths in Beirut do not matter as much as my other people’s deaths in Paris. ‘We’ do not get a safe button on Facebook. ‘We’ don’t get late night statements from the most powerful men and women alive and millions of online users. ‘We’ don’t change policies which will affect the lives of countless innocent refugees.  In the meantime, many Nigerians had taken to the social media to register their solidarity with Paris but this could not be clearer.” His entry was shared 10,000 times and counting.

In Washington, President Barack Obama dubbed the Paris bombings an “attack on all humanity”, and of course, he did not mention other bombings elsewhere. And even if he did , he  would have done so with much gusto.

The Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was left to defend his company: “Many people have rightfully asked why we turned on Safety Check for Paris but not for bombings in Beirut and other places. Until yesterday, our policy was only to activate Safety Check for natural disasters. We just changed this and now plan to activate Safety Check for more human disasters going forward as well. Thank you to everyone who has reached out with questions and concerns about this. You are right that there are many other important conflicts in the world. We care about all people equally, and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can.”

So, you see, if we do not put value on ourselves then other people will make the  decisions for us and they  will look after their own interest and  they are most likely to place less  value on us. People with power in particular, the West tend to support their own, while other countries are ignored in this horror. But then  we do not support our own.

So why was some social media more preferential in the way they urge its users to show solidarity with France’s victims, and not Lebanon’s or Nigeria’s or Mali or Pakistan?  We know that Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency has killed about 20,000 people and driven an estimated 1.5 million to 2.3 million people in the region from their homes. Why has there not been a bigger outrage and international assistance and support? Do they value Nigerian lives or do we value Nigerian lives?

Let’s be honest. It seems that lives are cheap and we do not value Nigerian lives.  We need to make every of our lives matter, fight for our people, improve the lives of people and value each other and ourselves and then the rest of the world will do so too.

Prayers aren’t often the answer.

The Dalai Lama has said prayer will not solve the issues surrounding the Paris attacks and those used the Twitter tag #PrayForParis in the aftermath of the massacre. This must have come as a surprise to those who know that the Dalai Lama, as a man of peace and mediation. There is logic in his statement as he explained that it is ‘illogical’ to expect divine powers to help mend a problem created by humans, telling the world not to ‘expect help from God and governments. We cannot solve this problem only through prayers. I am a Buddhist and I believe in praying. But humans have created this problem, and now we are asking God to solve it. It is illogical. God would say, solve it yourself because you created it in the first place”

For those Nigerians, who after every disaster say: “only God will save Nigeria, I refer you to Dalai Lama that people created this mess and God has nothing to do with this”?

Deporting Nigerians

Contrary to the mass hysteria, 48 Nigerians have been deported and not 500. The 48 Nigerians have been sent home by the UK and deposited at Murtala Muhammed International Airport. Should Nigerians home and abroad be concerned? Possibly.  Nigerians did not make the decisions to leave the Nigerian shores lightly, many had no choice but to seek their fortune and future anywhere else but Nigeria.

Now the home Office have said that “those with no right to be in the UK should return home. We expect people to leave the country voluntarily but, where they do not, Immigration Enforcement will seek to enforce their departure.”

It has been said that the UK intend to deport up to 29,000 Nigerians, that is a large number of Nigerians and what will become of them, when they return when many , depend on their overseas relatives to remit money for their day to day living in Nigeria?

The acting High commissioner  to the UK, Kunle Akindele Bamgbose, said that the Nigerian High  commission has been asked to help remove people who were sick, had immigration appeals outstanding, had no ties to Nigeria after living for many years in the UK and who in some cases were not even Nigerian. He said: “It’s a big issue for us here at the embassy, there are cases where people have been here for decades.