Column No.6: Big Sallah, bigger wahala

Eid el-Adha, ‘Festival of the Sacrifice’, is one of two official holidays celebrated within Islam (the other being Eid el-Fitr or ‘Festival…

Eid el-Adha, ‘Festival of the Sacrifice’, is one of two official holidays celebrated within Islam (the other being Eid el-Fitr or ‘Festival of the Breaking of the Fast’) honouring the willingness of Annabi Ibrahim (AS) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to Allah’s command. Before he could sacrifice his son, however, Allah SWT provided a lamb instead. In commemoration, animals are sacrificed ritually. Also called ‘Big Sallah’ in Nigeria, there’s usually an air of happiness and festivity, occasioned by a variety of food in abundance, including fried mutton. In most Muslim households, even those who didn’t slaughter a ram for whatever reason, food is distributed in beautiful containers to family, friends, and neighbours. It is indeed a time of the year to look forward to. But this year, that is not the case, for a variety of reasons.

Prices of commodities at the markets this year have steadily been spiking, the recent one worsened by the deletion of fuel subsidy, seeing a horrific tripling of prices in markets as a response. Like I usually do with post-Sallah pieces, I’ll stick to the season’s essentials: Rams, chickens, tomatoes, pepper, cooking oil, and others all saw prices climbing up so fast that it rained on most parades in the country. Many people could not afford ‘kayan Sallah’, instead rocking old items from an already-starved wardrobe. Even ram sellers via their associations nationwide cried out in the media about low patronage, and a social media meme which sounds curiously like a wise saying, went viral. It goes: Sayan rago a Abuja ganganci, which means loosely ‘Buying a ram in Abuja is a stupid risk’. While probably an extreme meme, it still spoke truth, and its spread says volumes about how bad things currently are.

Many people travel around various states during Sallah, mostly to spend the time with family while taking advantage of public holidays. This year, again on my way to visit my mother and siblings, I noticed the roads were ‘dry’. Only a few trucks – and even fewer private cars – shared the highway with me. While that should be a welcome development in the best of times, it was eerie, to say the least, because in the past, the roads are usually packed with travellers. A drive round Kaduna, where I spent Sallah, made me feel guilty for having had such a bountiful, happy celebration with family and friends. The guilt stemmed from the number of beggars at traffic stops in the urban areas, and the sheer multitudes of long-faced people I saw, much more than last year’s. Simply put, festivities were at a minimum, with smiles even scarcer than money.

Like the typical Nigerian I am, I turned to social media for some much-needed escapism. Alas, there was none, because it reflected the harsh realities all around us. Most of the chatter, apart from pop star Davido’s baby-mama-drama, was on the salary bump which lawmakers are poised to receive, with the blessing of newly-minted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Speaking of whom, he is a man after my heart, though this new aforementioned development is testing me. It would not be such a waste of money if a good chunk of the well-paid (or better-paid, natch) elected officials will sit down, huddle, and come up with the right solutions to justify their keep. True, some politicians are doing some good with some social programmes that are helping out massively, but the truth is that there are more who are not doing diddly-squat. There’s far too much slack waiting to be picked up, for God’s sake!

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But I should point out that this isn’t a government-bashing piece, even if it is beginning to sound like one. This is a call to action, based on the most disturbing signal which this season – supposed to be the most bountiful, but has turned out to be the leanest – has projected. I’ve never seen a Sallah, big or small, which had this many people with long faces. And that’s what I said last Sallah, and the one before that. You see that? Things are worsening, and steadily. The big wahala Nigerians have been facing is getting bigger. My points may seem superficial, but gander a closer look and you will see a bigger picture. While a solution to a problem as massive as what we are currently facing in Nigeria might require a miracle – as impossible as miracles are – maybe this new government needs to push a little harder as to meet that seemingly impossible miracle. I sincerely hope you’re one of those who, against all odds, had a happy Sallah.