It’s a season of goodwill. It’s a season of giving. It’s a season of love. It’s Christmas, the season for the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
Ordinarily, the flavour of Christmas festivities should be wafting all over the place from county to community to country. Not this time, not this year, certainly not in Nigeria. It’s so quiet and the absence of the usual buzz of Christmas is very deafening. It’s so bad that ever-crazy and creative Nigerians have turned to the social media to make the most of a bad situation. I will paraphrase a trending message on various platforms ostensibly designed to lighten the heavy mood of the people who are still unable and unwilling to accept the label on their country as the Poverty Capital of the World.
The message counsels Nigerians not to fret about acquiring new things or even preparing special meals this weekend. It says that, for the majority of Nigerians, Saturday, December 25, is not their birthday. And that there’s no evidence that Jesus Christ, whose birthday it is, has invited them to a party. So, why the fuss?
We will subsequently weave the place of Herod in Nigeria’s Christmas in 2021 as we continue this conversation. But we will at the same time attempt to talk about the story of Christmas. Christmas is about wise men from the East, shepherds, manger and the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s a story that has been told and repeated for over 2,000 years. It’s a story that has been attacked and attempts made to discredit it but which has stayed true to the core of the message. Everything around and about it has changed but the story has remained the same. The more it is attacked, the more appealing it has become. Indeed, there’s something about Christmas that connects it with many people, Christians and non-Christians.
Christmas is a story of hope and survival. In ancient times, Rome ruled the world. The Roman rule was oppressive and its government corrupt. The rule under Rome appears to bear a canny relationship with today’s Nigeria. For example, its tax-collecting agents brutalised and extorted money from the people. How uncanny that today, in Nigeria, our tax collectors can be likened to those who operated under the Roman government’s directive more than 2,000 years ago. If you argue that this is an exaggerated comparison, you are wrong.
Pray, what does our government in Abuja do with taxes it extorts from individuals and corporations? Practically nothing, otherwise it would not form the habit of excessive borrowins from offshore lenders. Connect the dots. So, if Christmas is a story of hope and survival, then it’s the story of Nigeria. We have hope and we will survive all oppressive rulers.
This season is also about peace and goodwill. Sadly, courtesy of the Herods holding the levers of power in Nigeria, we neither have peace nor goodwill, especially between the people and their rulers. There’s too much crime and criminality, too much violence, too much killings and too much bloodletting.
But Christmas gives us hope that the Prince of Peace is at work. He will help, in spite of ourselves and our rulers. Why do I say that God will intervene in our bleak situation in spite of ourselves? It’s because we know what to do about Nigeria to set it on the path of relative peace and requisite development but we have refused to do so. We know that we need to enthrone justice and equity but we have willfully neglected to do so. We know that our country is not working for the good of a huge percentage of Nigerians but we have insisted on doing the same things and we are expecting different results.
The worst type of deceit is self-deceit and we are fully invested in it. We know that our country is a lie but we keep believing the lie. We know we have to restructure the country but the ruling elite claim that they do not know what restructuring means. How did they insert restructuring in their party’s manifesto in 2014, if they did not know what it meant? Why did they set up a committee to explore how to implement the programme ahead of the 2019 general election, if the concept was alien?
Just like the story of Christmas, it’s when the people are at their lowest point, as it is the case of Nigerians today, that an Angel would appear with a message that would “soothe anxious hearts” and troubled minds. “And behold, an Angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the Angel said to them (Nigerians), Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people (Nigerians).”
Christmas is a story of family. But the Herodians in Nigeria’s ruling (ruinning elite) have brought strain, stress and strife to our families. Control of children and other family members has been undermined by economic policies that have rendered parents unemployed and their businesses struggling or dead. How much control can parents who cannot meet the basic needs of the family exert on their children?
Nigerians have huge lessons to learn from the story of Christmas. Never again should we invest our hopes in any human messiah. We did so in 2015 and what a spectacular failure it has turned out to be. This season teaches us to trust in God Who is willing and able to relieve us of every leadership affliction. He did it with Sani Abacha. And God is still in the business of doing good.
Christmas is a story of humility, not affected or contrived humility of Nigeria’s ruling elite. Worldly rulers appear with pomp and ceremony. Nigeria’s are not different, in spite of their pretensions. At this time, we are expected to look beyond President Muhammadu Buhari and his band. In spite of claims to the contrary, they are not different from some of their predecessors. They are insensitive, they are uncaring, they are aloof and they have demonstrated lack of capacity.
Jesus Christ came as a servant, He related freely and His becoming human helped people to identify with Him. Sadly, we cannot identify with our rulers at this time of dire need.
It’s a season of love but there’s no love in the hearts of our rulers. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… Yes, love is about giving. Not for our rulers. For them, taking is the game.
They delight in privatising the commonwealth into their pockets, wallets and purses. Still not satisfied, they are talking about imposing more taxes, including new tax on petrol, which they christened removal of subsidy, on hapless Nigerians in barely a month’s time. It’s unfortunate but their hearts are blackened. Take this from me: we will survive them.
Merry Christmas. And welcome back to FINGERPRINTS, which was forcibly rested by the ancien regime.