Yuletide of thorny roses
On the spiritual side, Christmas was heralded in by carols and jingle bells. The sermon from the pulpit was full of reminders of the true essence of Christmas; the symbolism of sacrifice, humility and service in leadership. Christ was the symbol of meekness in power; the Lord who came to show us the physical attributes […]
On the spiritual side, Christmas was heralded in by carols and jingle bells. The sermon from the pulpit was full of reminders of the true essence of Christmas; the symbolism of sacrifice, humility and service in leadership. Christ was the symbol of meekness in power; the Lord who came to show us the physical attributes of God; who left his throne on high to come to the earthy world of sins to suffer for mankind and to go through the painful and humiliating burden of death, for the redemption of our soul and reprieve of our iniquities. Christ gave his life for the salvation of mankind. All of these; the social and festive carousing and the nourishment of the spirit; characterized Christmas. We capture all these with great nostalgia of times that rest only now in distant memories; times capturable only in phantom dreams and delusive hopes. Now, the only certitude and justification for celebration and merry-making is the sheer miracle that we have survived the year, against all odds, against all unlikeliness of survival in a world and a nation so death-bound, so crime-prone, so insecure , so chaotic and so anomic. Every day of every week of every month of the year is characterized by incoherence and uncertainty. It is a season of the holocaust, nowadays in our nation.
We wake up to, or we are woken up by, thunderous blasts of bombs in the most unlikely places. There is sorrow and mourning of lost and dismembered ones; of friends and relations with whom we shared a meal or a beer only last night but who have been taken away from us by irregular monopoly of violence—Boko Haram, Niger Delta militants, especially those seeking fresh inclusions in Amnesty largesse, armed robbery, needless deaths and killings on our hazardous pot-holed roads and illiterate drunken drivers of sprawling trucks and trailers. There is more wailing on our land that used to be filled with laughter and festivities. As festive seasons approach, we receive fresh threats of more violence, more killings and more destruction. As it happened in the wake of Sallah, where the killings of many innocent souls in the North East dismally marred the joy of the holy season, there are threats and promises of a violent Christmas. There are numerous places marked out for bomb-blasts in Jos and elsewhere. As it happened last year, similar threats of disrupted and disturbed peace at Christmas were carried out with frightening impunity!
Since last week, messages of doom wrapped in parcels of bombs have been spread around in Jos. Boko Haram has allegedly sent out threats to bomb twenty-two public places, mainly churches in the Plateau. Kaduna is presently under siege and attacks have been carried out leading to numerous deaths. All the promises of roses, which should usher in Yuletide, have been replaced with deathly thorns. This premonition and foreboding of tragic Christmas reminds me of Akachi Ezeigbo’s brilliant novel recently brought out under the intriguing title, ‘Roses and Bullets’. Even in the country-sides, usual havens of serenity and quietude, armed robbers have laid siege. In Okunland where I come from, robbers first of all bomb police stations, seize ammunition and proceed to throw dynamites into banks. It first happened in Kabba, then in Aiyetoro. It has just happened in neighbouring Okene where a bank was robbed and people got killed. The road from Kabba to Egbe has been commandeered by marauders of the underworld.
What is the response of the State to all this dystopia; all this brutish incoherence and national insecurity, as Christmas approaches? It would appear that crass insensitivity and a deficit of sensibility are the manifest replies to the raging violence on the land. Recently, the President and his former boss, the chairman of the board of trustee of the ruling party are themselves predicting the imminence of revolution; our own version of the Arab spring. Sometime ago, towards the end of Chief Obasanjo’s first term in office, a young but popular and highly visionary musician, Eedris Abdulkareem, brought out an album which greatly enraged the President. In the song, the musician captured the anomic state of the nation thus: ‘Nigeria jaga-jaga/ common man suffer-suffer/ everything scatter-scatter/ gunshot everywhere.’ The lyric, in its lucidity and disarming simplicity, captured all the critical elements of poetry- onomatopoeia (sound and meaning harmonizing), metaphor, and alliteration, name it. Graphic social relevance is the high point of the song. It was like tonic in the nation’s blood. The song was on the lips of every one. The President, not known for condoning criticism, raged and fumed. He showered vituperations on the young musician his entire lineage and village. In enlightened self-interest, this patriotic artist, dashed for temporary cover. Nearly eight years after, Obasanjo and his god-son, Goodluck Jonathan, are borrowing Abdukareem’s refrain. The situation in the nation has worsened. The only difference is that ‘gunshot everywhere’ has been replaced by ‘bomb-blast everywhere’. Obasanjo, is waxing revolutionary. If he were a man capable of remorse, he should publicly apologize to clairvoyant Eedris!
The current President is demonstrating a legendary capacity for mass provocation of an already incensed electorate. First, he threatened tenure elongation for Presidents and Governors. The insinuation was greeted with national outcry. Then he muted the return of toll gates. The nation asked for whom the gates toll. Neither of these unpopular proposals has been abandoned before he came out with subsidy removal on petroleum products in the name of market liberalization or deregulation. Everybody who is anybody has asked him to shelve it; the Nigerian Labour Congress, past Presidents (Gowon, Buhari and recently, OBJ!), the national Assembly and the popular masses. There is national outcry of blue murder. But in a rare and uncharacteristic display of suicidal bravado and uncommon resoluteness, egged on by his Ministers, Governors, NNPC bosses and in a subtle manner, the International Monetary Fund, Goodluck Jonathan, our humble and amiable President, is hell-bent on removing the imaginary subsidy. The latest manifestation of his resolve is the fact that subsidy was not captured in his 2011 Appropriation. The nation is both tense and needlessly heated up. It is like the story of one being hounded but who smeared his body with palm oil and sat by the fire-side!
In spite of all these, we still wish all of Nigerians a Happy and Merry Christmas, incurable optimists that we are. Yet, it promises to be a Yuletide of thorny roses.