By Bayo Oluwasanmi
As we celebrate yet another Christmas, our modern history is history of repeated injuries, injustices, wickedness, and abuses on the part of the ruling class toward poor Nigerians.
The ruling class has turned Nigeria into a wasteland of pain, heartache, frustration, dashed hopes, and wasted life. Daily living in Nigeria is a constant stress and struggle in a jungle called Nigeria. The global pestilence COVID-19 pandemic, has exacerbated and extended misery of poverty stricken Nigerians.
During this special time of the year, what to eat, where to sleep, what to do, fear of the known and unknown, who and where to turn to for help, and what’s next are the irritants that clog the heartbeat of pulverized Nigerians.
The magnitude of wickedness in high places displayed by state governors was magnified by hoarding COVID-19 pandemic relief food meant for their citizens stowed away in government warehouses. While civilized countries gave cash and food to their citizens, the relief materials for Nigerians were stolen and repackaged as campaign giveaways for the next election.
To add insult to injury, hungry Nigerians that “looted” the warehouses were arrested and charged with stealing their own food. The viral video portrays Nigerians as object of cruel mocking to the world.
When governments failed to produce solutions to poverty, unemployment, corruption, injustice, and security, anger takes over. Nigerian government has ran out of arguments and reasons why it has failed to provide basic necessities of life to Nigerians. It has no solution to make life better for Nigerians. It has no plan to make Nigeria a better country. The government is clueless.
No one yearns to be crushed. No one welcomes the pain, pressure, adversity associated with impoverished life. Crushing is a painful, agonizing process. Today’s Christmas, Nigerians are being crushed in every way. They run from pillar to post. They beg for food. They beg for water to drink. They fight generators to generate electricity. They take turns to fetch water from neighbor’s borehole.
They settle for danfo, molue, okada, maruwa for transportation. They look for jobs that are nonexistent. They scramble for where to lay their heads when night comes. Their life is turned inside out. Families are dislodged, dislocated, disorganized and destabilized. Home is no more home. The future looks scary and strange. The future remains bleak. In short, Nigerians live like beasts of burden!
As the “suffering and smiling” of poor Nigerians continues, it’s Christmas like no other. Like Mother Jones, the hell raiser unionist advised, let’s “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
No merry Christmas!
