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Never in recent times have I seen my friend,Chibuikem, feel so sad as he was last Sunday when I visited him. His face looked so solemn, his mind was troubled, and heart hurt. As he leaned back in his chair with his hands clasped together in his lap, I knew something was wrong. He used to a vivacious fellow. But, not this time. I asked what the matter was. Choosing his words with care, he said he had been under tremendous strain lately. He reeled out some of the challenges, one of them the death of his mother in-law and other pocketbook issues. “Last year was bad”, he said because of the outbreak of the COVID-19, “but this year has been progressively worse. Imagine few days to Christmas, nothing for my children to celebrate the season, cost of food has increased so high that the money my wife went to the market with could not buy half the items she budgeted for”.
This is the kind of deep-seated frustration millions of Nigerians are going through this season. Indeed, do they know it’s Christmas? You see, every nation, every parent, every leader cannot escape responsibilities. Responsibilities abandoned today will certainly return as more acute crises tomorrow. Four days to Christmas, leadership incompetence has conscripted us to such a level that, for millions of Christians, moments that call for celebration such as the birth of Jesus Christ, has become a period to feel disillusioned because a climate of fear not seen in years is upon us, courtesy of bad leadership.
If 2020 disrupted lives and livelihoods, 2021 has equally tested our individual and collective determination in ways no previous year ever did. Across the country, this Christmas will be celebrated in a sombre and low-key fashion. Nobody needs to tell anybody why this is so. Insecurity has squeezed everybody to a corner. Many who would have wanted to travel could not for fear of been kidnapped. Worse still, the purchasing power of the people has declined greatly, food inflation, unemployment and poverty have taken over the land.
Again, we have been told that tougher times are even ahead next year as the government plans to remove fuel subsidy. Government has also served notice to the citizens to brace up for more taxes and levies. It’s all about one rule for the government and its officials, and new, stringent new rules for the rest of us. For almost seven years in power, the Buhari administration is behaving like an overfed father who cannot take care of its frail children. Many Nigerians don’t know where their next meal will come from. By government’s own account, by end of next year, about 11 million more Nigerians will fall into poverty. Look around your neighborhood, some people are rummaging through the refuse bins for what to eat. Are we still the “Giant of Africa”, the largest economy on the continent? That’s how nations with incompetent leaders fall.
Already, Nigeria maintains the inglorious World’s Poverty Capital, while our misery index, a combination of of inflation and unemployment, has surpassed 50 percent threshold, the worst among its peers in Africa. Yet, a government official like Lai Mohammed, the Information and Culture Minister, continues to malign the truth, and oversimplify complex issues that all is well, that President Buhari is making better things happen for Nigeria and Nigerians, and without him, Nigeria would have been islamized long ago. What a way to fudge facts. It’s a shame!
Many Nigerians no longer believe government is working for their interests. Indeed, the general belief is that those in government are working for their own interests and that of their families. Last year, many poor Nigerians were seen scrambling for Christmas palliatives. And some of them died in the process. One gory scene happened in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. We are almost at that point where the citizens may engage one another in a fight to survive. Late Chief Tony Anenih once said, when Nigerians begin to fight themselves on the street, that’s when to know things have gotten out of control. We are fast getting to that tipping point.
In the face of poverty, and four days to Christmas, how many Nigerians understand the spiritual significance of the birth of Jesus Christ? Do they truly understand that the message of Christ is encapsulated in His liquid love, that his love flows, his words and actions are laden with love? Everything about this season is an expression of divine love. But, are we celebrating this season with this consciousness, this joy and warmth? Does a hunger, poverty-stricken person see Christmas as Christ in him or her? Understanding this is what makes Christmas worth celebrating. That the totality of His personality is love.
In this season, we need to ask: How much do we care for, and love one another? How much does the government care for the people and do what will uplift their well-being? The truth is that, when government and leaders lack vision, they lack the stuff of political life to move the nation forward. They settle for second best. This is why our country is getting progressively worse rather than making better things happen for the citizens. How many times shall we say this? There’s always a good place in history for any leader who wants to succeed. The starting point is to define his goals and vision in a way that gives coherence. He cannot achieve these goals, this vision and purposes if they are packaged in a mishmash manner. Sadly, that’s the situation in Nigeria today.
In all, it is appropriate to use this season of Christmas to once again look at how we have been governed, why the love that the birth of Christ means is lacking, why our leaders are not measuring up on the leadership scale, and why the citizens are disconnected with the leaders. Last year, we hailed President Muhammadu Buhari when he lamented the level of poverty in the country. He was quoted to have said that the situation troubles him. Also, recall how in his “Democracy Day” speech on June 12, 2019, the President emphatically promised to “lay the enduring foundations for taking a hundred million Nigerians out of mass poverty over the next 10 years”. That will mean 10 million Nigerians will be lifted from poverty each year . What have we got from that promise? Next to nothing. Instead, eleven million more Nigerians will enter into poverty trap next year. The truth is that pessimism has supplanted hope in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, bandits and kidnappers are prowling all over the place because insecurity has reached a frightening dimension. Price of food items have hit the rooftops. Everywhere you look, hope is fading in Nigeria. There’s a trust deficit in government. Nobody is saying that President Buhari has the magic wand to make Nigeria great overnight or eradicate poverty with the speed of light, but his administration has not been able to initiate concrete programmes of action to stop it from getting to the present, frightening level, that about 91.6 million Nigerians are estimated to be living in extreme poverty. All said, let’s not forget the reason for the season. Happy Christmas.
