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Again, it’s that time of the year when mortal man unwinds in celebratory indulgence, when humans serenade their souls with dainty wines and sumptuous dishes. It’s time to love and be loved; a time to give and to receive. Welcome to Christmas. Welcome to the most celebrated event in human history.
Christmas evokes joy. It’s a moment of mirth, a moment to be merry. For some, it is a time to take that much postponed holiday; undertake short and long trips just to reunite with loved ones. Christmas in Christendom commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ in a seedy manger in Bethlehem of Judea. This is still contentious, though, as some believe Jesus was born sometime in the month of October. But whether in December or October, the most important factor is that once-upon-a-time, a Saviour was born. He was born to bring ‘goodwill to all men’. He was born to herald the redemption of fallen man.
The Christian Holy Writ, the Bible, says Jesus came to set the captives free; to bring light to a world steeped in the fog of darkness. Jesus came to heal the sick, raise the dead, turn despair to hope and bring comfort to the broken-hearted. He came to bring peace to a people at war. He came to do good to a very bad and unappreciative man. Yes, Jesus came to give a sweet flavour to a tasteless life.
When He was born, He did not choose the home of royalty or the bourgeoisie in Israel. No trumpet flourish heralded his birth. No klieglights; no red carpet; and no popping of champagne. Heaven did not engage the services of the best gynaecologists in the land, neither were the best marketing and event management consultants engaged to manage His birth and attendant ceremonies including His naming ceremony. He came to man through the poorest of the poor: the family of a carpenter. Yet, there were scholarly men at that time; there were lawyers, successful merchants and wealthy royalties who dwelt in marbled homes. Heaven shunned these people and sent Jesus through a peasant virgin betrothed to a peasant carpenter. What a mystery and a show of humility.
When Jesus came, He did not discriminate. He dined with the poor and the rich. He made friends with sinners including notorious sinners in the community. He was lowly and accessible to all. Notorious thieves, adulterers, tax collectors, soldiers who had killed many at wars and soiled their hands with blood and certified failures were his companions. His motley crowd of disciples was a mix of the timid, the lettered, the unlettered, the failures and the public sinners. But He made them his allies and turned them from failures and despairing men to bold and unfazed role models.
In his evergreen book, 12 Ordinary Men, John Fullerton MacArthur Jr., an American tele-evangelist and author chronicled, in the most compelling narrative, the leadership and extraordinary influence of Jesus Christ as a teacher, role model, and a man of uncommon empathy. The book showcased, most lucidly, the perceptive abilities of Jesus. It takes the reader through the esoteric labyrinth of how one fellow used 12 ordinary men to turn the world around so much so that up till this day, their footprints on the sands of time have endured generations and ages.
Jesus as a leader was non-discriminatory. He was simple and full of empathy. The sick and down-trodden were so close to him that they could even touch him. He fed the hungry in their thousands and never put a charge to it. The blind, the sick, the widowed, the mentally deranged and the possessed all profited from his fountain of goodwill.
As a leader, Jesus did not breathe down on His followers in self-righteous aloofness. He did not bark out orders to His disciples. He trekked over long distances like any other. He got tired too. In His tiredness, He still selflessly washed the feet of His disciples. He was simply service-driven. He ate the same broth from the same plate with His motley crowd. No special plate; no special ration. He made himself of no significance yet He was full of heavenly glory and majesty. He was accountable to His followers. They had a purse but He did not mind it; did not dip His hand into it to satiate a flamboyant lifestyle. He led no such life. No ostentation; no showy display. A meek lamb, He was.
Christmas, as a memorial for the birth of Jesus, ought to bring ‘goodwill to all men’. The celebration of Christmas should also mean the dismantling of the barricades and barriers that partition us: the rich from the poor, the leader from the led and the bourgeoisie from the hoi polloi. Christmas means light coming to a people in darkness; it means feeding the hungry and giving water to the thirsty. It does not, and should not, mean using other people’s money to gratify our prodigal indulgence.
Why then are our leaders doing the very opposite? Why has humanity turned the sacred season of Christmas into a moment of mindless feasting and bunting? Why, for instance, should Nigerians celebrate Christmas in the dark? Why would they spend days on cratered roads for journeys that would have taken just a few hours? Where is the ‘goodwill to all men’ when one governor will pocket the money of a whole state and jet out to buy up estates in strange lands while his subjects writhe in grim poverty? If Jesus were the president, He would not leave us in the dark; He would not stand the sight of babies bearing rashes because Mama and Papa could not afford generators or were unable to fuel the generator day and night. If Jesus had been our president since 1960, He would have told us from the very first export of crude oil from that fabled Oloibiri oil well how much has accrued to us till this very day. Besides, Jesus would have put the money to better use for the good of all including the rich, the poor, the widowed and the maimed.
Tomorrow is Christmas but it’s not goodwill to all men. In Nigeria, there’s a thick pall of pain assailing the populace. No merry moments, just a miry season. No cash. Nigerians now buy naira with naira just so they can have access to cash to fund their meagre purchases. This is the worst Christmas since the return of democracy in 1999. And this is courtesy of the incompetence and perfidy that attended the eight years of the Buhari government. Buhari left a mess behind. The man from Daura fouled up the air. And now, President Bola Tinubu, a man credited with administrative mojo and leadership mastery, is finding it an uphill task to clean up. The endpoint is a blurry, bleary Christmas; the ‘worst and a nightmare’ for Nigerians, to borrow the words of Timi Frank, a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Yes, tomorrow is Christmas, but for many Nigerians, it’s not a merry one, it’s a miry Christmas.
