The Disturbed Peace of Christmas

Now, the usual feasting and festivities that manifest the externalities and trappings of Christmas, are sheerly 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, joy and redemption through his self martyrization, painful sacrifice and humiliation). Unfortunately, in […]

Now, the usual feasting and festivities that manifest the externalities and trappings of Christmas, are sheerly 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, joy and redemption through his self martyrization, painful sacrifice and humiliation). Unfortunately, in this year of Christ’s Nativity, the celebration flag is flown, half-mast. There is the expected joy to the world, as the Carol hymnals anticipate, but if the heavens rejoice, the Nigerian earth could not share in the joyful celebrations because of the obvious challenges—social and economic—fully. If the children were able to eat meatless rice, the radiant colours of Christmas, as used to be manifest in the bright Christmas attires that parents sew for their children, 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, because of obvious trepidations of suicide bombing and ceaseless attacks of Boko Haram, especially given the recent audacious attacks at the military base of Jaji, Kaduna, where several innocent souls were slain. Even in the southern states, given the recent spate of mindless kidnappings of high profile victims ( the case of Queen Okonjo, mother of the Minister of Finance who chairs the monitoring team of the nation’s economy and the wife of former Governor, Oluwole Rotimi exemplify the scale of gbenigbeni—kidnapping horrifying scenario-).

I have advisedly borrowed the title of this piece from the highly uncanny play of the late Zulu Sofola, Nigeria’s leading playwright until her demise, to capture the low-key-ness of this year’s Christmas celebrations—The Disturbed peace of Christmas. Never in our history has a Christmas been celebrated in such an atmosphere of insecurity. If you add the helicopter tragedies that slashed and cut down  the lives of six Nigerians  including a young pilot at his prime of life, the Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa General Owoye Azazi, the immediate past national Security Adviser, 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 faithfulls out of the churches in the north, is the most rational thought on our land today. Armed robbers are the only free people in our country nowadays. This phenomenon of dystopia, plus the non-motorable state of most of our roads, kept people away from joining their loved ones for Christmas in distant lands. Corruption is not just endemic, but it has turned itself, or has been turned, into our dominant culture, with thieving rulers 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 sate of anomie on our frighteningly insecure national landscape.

Our democracy in 2013 and beyond must allow individual participation to be taken for granted in a secured land. Full right 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 on 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, as I have reiterated elsewhere, 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 privatization, has to be re-structured to guarantee egalitarianism and equity in access to national wealth, opportunities and responsibilities. It is not for nothing that the people take to the streets in protestation against the so—called removal of subsidy, which the government of the day still nurses—even when the Minister of Finance traces the kidnap of her dear mother to subsidy defrauders. This is half of the story of mass discontent with the general economic policy on the land. Our economy—an obtuse rentier, 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, the State should 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 in which less than 2% of the populace cart and cream off over 80% of the nation’s wealth is unjust, and creates a disturbed peace at Christmas, or at any faith-based festivities. We need to reflect on all these indices of social injustice and inequity, so that we can say Merry Christmas and a Happy new year, next year.