For the peace and love of Yuletide

Yet, it is Yuletide, the period of the birth of Christ, the saviour of mankind, in Christian belief. It is a period, usually of mirth, bliss, celebration and merriment. This is why the usual wish to all people of all nations and all persuasions, at this period, is Merry Christmas. As I said, Christmas is […]

Yet, it is Yuletide, the period of the birth of Christ, the saviour of mankind, in Christian belief. It is a period, usually of mirth, bliss, celebration and merriment. This is why the usual wish to all people of all nations and all persuasions, at this period, is Merry Christmas. As I said, Christmas is already behind us but it leaves behind it the savour of its celebration and the anticipation and solicitation of a bounteous Happy New Year.
Now, the usual feasting and festivities that manifest the externalities and trappings of Christmas, aremerely complementary to the deeper spiritual uplift, vicarious triumph of salvation which the symbolism of Christmas, both connotes and denotes (Christ is the symbol of peace, love, joy and redemption through his self- martyrisation, painful sacrifice and humiliation, having been uncouthly nailed to the cross with a crown of bastard weeds and thorns). Unfortunately, in this year of Christ’s Nativity, the celebration is done amidst a spread of terror, mindless violence and passionate politics. There is the expected joy to the world, as the carol hymnals anticipate, but if the heavens rejoice, the Nigerian earth could not adequately share in the joyful celebrations because of the obvious challenges—social and economic; violence in the form of terror and wanton killings of kith by kin, raging electioneering and its palpitations of power mongering. If the children were able to eat meatless rice, the radiant colours of Christmas, as used to be manifest in the brightChristmas attires that parents sewed for their children in ages past, were not there in most towns and villages. The home rounds of children in their proud lyrics and sweet drum rhythms were mostly silent.
 Most churches did not receive their full congregational attendance, especially in the north-eastern part, because of obvious trepidations of ceaselessinsurgent, terror attacks of Boko Haram. Chilly times reeking of murder of children in colleges, audacious attacks on security forces and counter-attacks where several innocent souls were slain took rein. Even in the southern states, the recent spate of mindless kid (mum and dad) nappingof high profile victims,ruin the culinary delight of Christmas rice. And love doesn’t leave here anymore, as we seem not to remember it is Christmas.
Hardly ever in our history has a Christmas been celebrated in such an atmosphere of insecurity. If you add the death tolls also by mindless auto-crashes on our horrible roads, increased terror rampage and the capturing of more souls around Chibok amidst un-abating struggle between the state and the warring Boko Haram for the monopoly of violence,you will capture the mournful state in which Christmas was celebrated in this country this fateful year. The expectation of bomb-blast, which kept many faithful out of the churches in the north last year, may have abated somewhat, but there is still not much to celebrate regarding the security of lives and property in the country. Armed robbers are the only free people in our country nowadays. This phenomenon of dystopia, plus the non-motor-able state of most of our roads, kept people away from joining their loved ones for Christmas in distant lands. Corruptionis not just endemic, but it has turned itself, or has been turned, into our dominant culture, with thieving elite members jetting their ways into our spaces with criminal audacity. Our rural/rustic societies, hitherto domains of serenity, peace and love, have become endangered. In these country homes, banks and police stations are insecure, with robbers detonating dynamites at free-will and the banks have therefore become frequently shut down, in self-interest. What songs by heavens and nature, as the carols admonish, can be hummed at Christmas, is to be expected in these socially paralysed environs?
It is therefore time for sombre reflection on the future of our democracy, as we march on to a new year with half-opened eyes at night, numerous hungry stomachs of the massively alienated citizens socially and economically because of huge unemployment scale, roaming poverty on our streets in the midst of criminal opulence and general state of anomie on our frighteningly insecure national landscape. All of these are happening as we still hope that the dying year of the transformation will yet yield promised gains.
Our democracy in 2015, the year of general elections, and beyond, must allow individual participation to be taken for granted in a secured land. Full rights for democratic participation, the right to act as citizens anywhere in the country, must be guaranteed by the state, either in private or public capacities, without hindrances or clauses founded on indigene/ settler dichotomies or religion, gender or tribe. Our Nigerian-ness must become unconditional. A multi-ethnic, multi-religious state like ours,expects tolerance of diverse cultures, tongues and doctrines, with sanctions and reprisals of disruptions and threats to public order. The principle and creed of love and good neighbourliness, enshrined in the doctrines laid down by Christ, must become operational in our land. Allegiance, ultimately, must be to the people, through the state structure in the years ahead and in the future of our dream.
A sustainable and sustained social structure is the key to an assured future of democracy. Extremities in wealth and poverty threaten and endanger social cohesion and brew social tension. The economic structure presently founded on dubious market forces, mal-structured deregulation and privatisation, has to be re-designed to guarantee egalitarianism and equity in access to national wealth, opportunities and responsibilities. Our economy—an obtuse renter, capitalist one—is largely consumption- driven, non-productive. It is undemocratic. Before the next Christmas, and in the spirit of committed, patriotic leadership, which Christ extols, and which the parties and their flag-bearers in the next elections must hold as a creed, the state ensure greater mobility of property and greater critical justification as well as re-distribution of un-equally possessed and crudely accumulated wealth and property.
Christ-like leadership and good governance is still a far-cry in our country. A situation where less than 2 percent of the populace cart away and cream off over 80 percent of the nation’s wealth is unjust, and creates social tensionand distemper at Christmas, or at any faith-based festivities.
This is the atmosphere in which the search for power through the ballot box which rages hotly now, is being pursued.  With the power craze rocking the domains of our partisan politics, without sparing a thought for the governed, how much of the lessons of love, humility, sacrifice, fellow-feeling and visionary leadership are we to expect in the New Year? We need to reflect on all these indices of social injustice and inequity, so that we can say Merry Christmas and a HappyNew Year, next year
The challenges of a happier and more purposeful years is for us all—both the power-seekers and those who will choose them, confront us as a nation-state. The current political ambience, which promises to bring greater competition for governance space among the contending parties, provides a clear opportunity for the electorate to take their choices more seriously.