I don’t know what’s happening in your own locality. However, I just can’t see any preparations for Christmas in my own area
A long while ago, when I was a tot. I used to count the months and the days leading to D-day. Christmas was odun kekere, and the New Year was odun nla.
I trusted my mum not to disappoint me. And, she never did. She would buy clothes for me – a pair for Christmas and another for the New Year.
God bless her soul, she knew good things!
If I were lucky, I could even escape with more than two pairs of clothes. Of course, when Christmas was approaching, I would have turned good. That means I would have stopped being mischievous.
I just cited myself as an example.
You could feel there was a great event coming up in the air. The harmattan season did not need to be invited. Of course, we were not talking about global warming then.
Who ate imported rice then? We were satisfied with our ofada rice then. Even when we decided to eat imported rice, we ate American long-grain rice, especially a brand that was popular in Nigeria then.
Thai rice? Tufiakwa!
We never knew Thai rice then.
We feasted on local chickens that had much stronger bones than today’s broiler.
However, it is a different ballgame now. All we are hearing now is recession.
What concerns little children with recession? Abeegi!
Even the youngsters know that the country is hard. But that does not stop the ruling class from living like the biblical prodigal son.
There are advertisements these days of locally produced rice to be sold for a whopping thirteen thousand naira per fifty kilograms. The imported sells for about seventeen thousand naira for the same quantity.
The minimum wage remains at eighteen thousand naira. But then, many states are not able to pay salaries when due. In fact, I keep on wondering whether our dear country ever had it so bad in the past.
That means rice, which has become the staple food of most children, is still unaffordable, at least for this Christmas. Parents are yet to put in the cost of clothes for Christmas and the New Year.
In fact, I can hardly see any Christmas lighting in any house around me. That means we are not ready for THIS Christmas.
So, may I beg whoever is in charge of this Christmas to please and please do us a favour.
Postpone this Christmas!!!
121116
