Forty eight hours ago was 2023. Now it is 2024. As is always the case, the transition from the old year to a new one was seamless. Nothing ever tampers with the march of time. As the new year arrived midnight on December 31 2023, humanity was in celebratory mood, as usual. From down under in Australia and New Zealand, to Hong Kong and Bangkok, to Dubai and from Paris, across to New York and Toronto, the change of baton from the old year to the new was ushered in with fireworks that speak effusively of a new dawn. Great.
But what new dawn? What difference does transition from one year to another make in the lives of ordinary Nigerians? Put in a fitting Nigerian street parlance, how does transition from 2023 to 2024 affect the price of beans in the market? The question assumes a very profound practical import, when situated in the context of the challenged daily life of Nigerians at the moment.
Any inclination in the ordinary folks to be dismissive of the new year as a harbinger of a better life, can easily be understood. It is a disposition informed by experience. As it has turned out, change rarely truly comes in the clime they inhabit. In fact, the more things seem to change, the more they remain the same. In many instances, it even gets worse. The change from 2023 to 2024 may, therefore, be merely nomenclatorial, for all the common man knows.
Think of it; All Progressives Congress [APC] dislodged Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] as the ruling party in 2019, with a promise of change. Eight years down the road, what has the people reaped? Death. Sorry. Hardship. It is not even that the promised change from APC has not materialized. The greater disaster is that every indicator lever for social, economic and political development was put on reverse. The lights have been blinking red ever since.
Buhari’s exit may indeed, count, as one of the positives of 2023. However, the man left so much debris in his wake, the type that will take a determined and properly-focused country, many tears to clear. Is Tinubu up to the task? 2024 will answer the question. To have assumed the seat may not be enough. The will and capacity will speak a lot more. So far, Tinubu seems preoccupied with playing politics. This can easily be seen in his being entangled on one hand with seemingly combating some of the monumental malfeasance that marked the reign of Buhari, but on another hand, is proclaiming the same Buhari a man of undiluted integrity. Possibly one of those double speak politicians engage in. That was in 2023, anyway. Nigerians are eagerly awaiting the change.
And now, it is 2024, a new year. After what has been generally described as the worst ever Christmas Nigerians have celebrated, in terms of economic difficulties, maybe, the December 2018 Band Aid’s charity hit, Do They Know it’s Christmas, should be re-made and domesticated Nigerians and the new year. The relevant question should then be; do they know it is new year? There are ample reports that many do not know. How will they know, when the drudgery of their lives shows no sign of abating in the new year. What difference does the transition from one year to another make?
Whether in Plateau State or in Taraba or in Lagos or in Anambra or in Cross River or in Niger state, or any other state for that matter, life in Nigeria has become frighteningly fleeting. Almost every turn an ordinary citizen makes presently, in the course of daily living, brings him face to face with one mortal danger or another. If terrorists fail to cut down a hapless citizen in his own modest village house, say in Bokos or Balkin – Ladi or Mangu in Plateaus state, a trailer or tanker could tip over any moment on a Lagos road, crushing innocent motorists going on their way. If one escapes such ghastly death, kidnappers and armed robbers lurk around the corners in Anambra State, wielding sophisticated weapons and ready to take on and outduel policemen on duty. You escape these, and cultists in Rivers or Cross State are ready to cut short life at any moment. You move over to Niger state, up to Sokoto, bandits reign supreme, ready to kill, even after collecting taxes from Nigerian citizens who also pay taxes to state authorities. You manage to get home, by God’s grace, after a harrowing day, then hunger awaits in the house. Scarcity of food has become a huge issue in an otherwise agriculturally well-endowed country. Such, is the sketch of life for ordinary Nigerians today. Lest it is forgotten, there are such other secondary disconcerting forces as task forces, comprising of young men wielding cudgels and nails, chasing around motorists along the streets, in a bid to enforce uncountable undefined local taxes. What difference therefore, does 2024 make from 2023 in this setting?
Forecasts about the new year hardly offer any source of hope. Why should they, anyway? It is not as if there is any positive change in the productivity level of the national economy. Over at the oil sector, where oil theft has reduced the national revenue by half, if not more, under the watch of Buhari,no substantial difference has been recorded after the change of baton in government. Interestingly, the loudest report in the oil sector in recent time has been the quarrel between Tompolo’s security outfit and the Nigerian Navy, about who is in charge and who is short changing Nigeria. Such is the state of Nigeria as 2023 gave way to 2024. There is no indication that the government will resolve the bickering and decisively declare who, between the Nigerian Navy and Tompolo, is in charge of the country’s security in the creeks and water ways.
As it has turned out, the primary sources through which forecasts of a good or better year for Nigerians have come so far, are the prophets, a number of who come alive at year end. One of them recently informed Nigerians that they should get their dancing shoes ready, because 2024 will be rosy. Of course, the man owed nobody any obligation to explain how that will happen.
As 2024 sets in, whatever the economic forecast says and whatever the prophets declare, the much one can have is a wish list; that the government (the executive and the legislature) exhibit more prudence, reflecting the reality of the times; that policies of the state reflect more attention to sustainable economic considerations rather than pandering to political whims; that the government summon the will to take decisive action on insecurity, such that will enable farmers to return to their farms with due protection. There is also the wish, certainly a tall one, that the government having got its prize, go out of its way to rescue the judiciary from the pit it presently swims in. Fortunately, CJN Olukayode Ariwoola is due to leave by mid-year. As 2023 saw the back of Buhari, so let it be with Justice Ariwoola in 2024.