OPINION: The last Christmas

Christmas festivities and celebrations are due this weekend. But how many Nigerians know it is Christmas? Many. No doubt. However, how many will feel it is Christmas? Not many. Certainly. Not within the ranks of the nearly 140 million Nigerians who have been officially adjudged as poor in critical dimensions by a government agency, the National Bureau of Statistics [NBS]. Their findings, in spite of being foreboding, are oven fresh. Outside official circles the thinking is that the finings do not reflect the current reality. Independent evaluators, even without the benefit of structured study or any study for that matter, believe that more than 160 million Nigerians are afflicted by dimensional poverty in the key areas of housing, education, health and money for the basics of life. Nigeria is estimated to harbour about 220 million people.

It is hard to believe what’s happening to Nigerians. the gravity of it. Thirty eight years ago, about this time, Band Aid, a collection of global music stars released a song titled “Do they know it’s Christmas?” The world’s conscience had been pricked by the privations and struggles and famines afflicting people in parts of Africa especially in Ethiopia, Somalia and other places ravaged by wars and conflicts and natural disasters. Nigeria was not in contention for pity and not in consideration for help with the proceeds of that charity concert which turned into a monster number one song on all global music charts.

It will be helpful here to reproduce part of the lyrics of that song and leave you to judge how uncanny the song that is about 40 years old spoke to the Nigerian situation today. “It’s Christmas time, there’s no need to be afraid. At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade. And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy. throw your arms around the world at Christmas time. But say a prayer, pray for the other ones. At Christmas time it’s hard, but when you’re having fun, There’s a world outside your window. and it’s a world of dread and fear. Where the only water flowing Is the bitter sting of tears. And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom… Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?…”

The words of the song above could easily be a fitting epitaph to the extant Nigerian state. Our decline in virtually all sectors of our national life was gradual but unrelenting. There were flashes of short lived attempts to course correct the ship of state by some rulers in the years since 1984. And especially since 1999 when the country was returned to civilian rule which is mistaken as democracy. But whatever gains were made from Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan had been eroded by the incumbent President, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the opposition leader who defeated Jonathan in 2015. Buhari was a man who coveted Nigeria’s presidency so much so that he vied for the office in three consecutive election seasons and failed- in 2003, 2007 and 2011. And he cried publicly when he failed in 2011. He vowed not to run again. But he did. In 2015. After building a coalition. And he won.

Nigerians expected a man who was prepared for office. But heck! No. He was clueless. He was sickly. He was nepotistic. He was insular. He became an absentee President. By the last count he had reportedly spent over 200 days in his seven and half-year presidency so far in hospitals abroad. When you add other official trips abroad, Gen. Buhari would have spent over 365 days outside the country he was elected to govern. But now the countdown is on. This weekend is expected to be the last Christmas under the suffocating regime of a man who has grievously devalued and diminished the presidency of Nigeria in more ways than one. He has proven that there is nothing he cannot destroy. Every economic indicator became worse under Buhari.

He did incalculable damage to the exchange rate of the Naira which has dropped from about N200 in 2015 to N750 to one United States of America dollar in 2022 He started off on his journey of economic illiteracy in 2015 with a weird policy on operations of domiciliary bank accounts. The financial system panicked. There was no clear strategic purpose for the policy. It ended in regrets. He shut the country’s borders with neighbouring countries ostensibly to curb smuggling and influx of small arms. That also failed. Small arms continued to come into the country unabated and with it pervasive insecurity. The policy was abandoned with no noticeable gains for the country. On Buhari’s watch, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product [GDP] achieved a feat. It grew at an average of 1% flat for seven years. That could make the Guinness Book of Records. Galloping inflation, acute unemployment, unbearable cost of living as well as fallen standard of living is the reality of many Nigerians under Buhari.

But there are two other critical areas that stand out in the spectacular infamy of Buhari and his All Progressives Congress [APC] political party. They are related not just by the industry but also by their affiliation to criminal gangs operating with official cover. The first is petrol subsidy. The man who once claimed that petrol subsidy was a scheme by the ruling elite now presides over the worst subsidy crime in the history of Nigeria. Then there is the criminal industrial scale theft of crude oil. It has been so bad that the country has virtually failed to meet its OPEC quota under this dispensation. At a time it was reported that about 80% of the country’s crude oil was being stolen. And Gen. Muhammadu Buhari doubles as the Hon. Minister of Petroleum Resources.

Yes, it is the last Christmas under the affliction of Buhari’s rulership. Hopefully it will also be the last Christmas that Nigerians will live under the scourge of APC as the governing party. It may sound morbid but it is the reality of life. This weekend will be the last Christmas for some Nigerians. They may never get to experience another Christmas under Buhari as President and APC as the ruling or ruining party. The other day, Buhari said in Washington that he has done his best for Nigeria. Someone should tell him that what his best has produced is a totally broken country – THE NIGERIAN CARNAGE. May his type never come Nigeria’s way again.
And GOAT Messi

Finally Lionel Messi won the football World Cup last Sunday in Qatar. It was the only trophy missing in the cabinet of this exceptionally talented footballer. I rooted for him though I had reservations. It is curious that of all South American countries at the World Cup, Argentina was the only country with no black player. I probably did not look well. If you google you may get to learn how that country destroyed its black people.. This plays in the back of my mind even as I congratulate Messi and Argentina on this win that equalled or broke records.

AUTHOR:UGO ONUOHA

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Articles published in our Graffiti section are strictly the opinion of the writers and do not represent the views of Ripples Nigeria or its editorial stand.

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