Happy Good Friday to Nigerians -By Ngozi Emesolibe

As a child growing up in Ngwa land in old Imo State, Bible stories intrigued me. It was not about religion. No. It was about the history and the lessons therein. The names of the towns in the stories were appealing too: Jerusalem, Jericho, Egypt, Nazareth, Israel, Galilee. Because these cities were linked to Jesus, I actually grew up believing that those cities were located beyond the skies, in heaven. It was much later that it dawned on me that Egyptians were even in Africa and could actually play football matches with ‘humans’ like Segun Odegbami, Christian Chukwu and Emmanuel Okala, whom we used to call ‘magnetor’, owing to how he used to grab balls like a magnet .

From that age, I moved to the age of rationalising some of the concepts of the Bible. One that was difficult to reconcile was Good Friday. I always wondered why it was good; despite being the day they killed Jesus, who was an innocent. With the murder, injustice, hurt meted to an innocent man, it should be Bad Friday.

But they managed to find a plausible explanation to rationalise it, the way it would permeate the brain of a pre-teen like me. They told me it was ‘Good’, because Jesus’ blood which was shed on the Cross washed all the sins on earth away. I am still rationalising it and have reclined to faith, which is one virtue Christians need to follow their doctrine.

Today, Friday, May 26, 2023, I have decided to borrow a leaf from the biblical concept that the day that portrays one’s liberation or the ‘death’ of any kind of bondage or hurt is ‘Good’. I wish to declare that today is supposed to be Good Friday…from the shackles of the outgoing government, since today is their last Friday in power. Someone posted on the social media that anyone who managed to survive should be awarded a Certificate of Survival. But I think, whoever gets such a certificate needs to frame it and hang it at a strategic portion of his house, because e no easy!

The reasons for calling this a Good Friday are not far-fetched. While some Nigerians would be out today, doing TGIF, feelings of accomplishments should ordinarily consume us as we reflect on how awesome God has been by graciously letting us overcome this.

Anyone who thinks it is not a big deal should begin with security. Yes, it was not top notch prior to 2015, but it is far worse today. Eight years ago, we were hearing of pockets of attacks in the N’East state of Borno and sparingly in Yobe, but today, we can hardly move around in all the states of the federation, save from some areas where traffic gridlock has helped (yes ‘go-slow’ is better than paying ransom o) in discouraging the activities of bandits.

Last year, my good friend, Francis Amirize, the founder of Nigerian Social Media Award, embarked on a trip from Lagos to Port Harcourt alongside some police escorts in a vehicle provided by his friend a High Court judge in Lagos, and suddenly, went off the radar for 3 weeks. All occupants of that unregistered Sienna bus owned by the judge were murdered in cold blood with their bodies tossed aside, left to decompose inside the bush. My friend and the other occupants are not the only ones who have been so afflicted. Though we do not keep records, thousands may have gotten this cruel treatment in the past eight years.

Why should it be Good Friday? Some startling economic indices have not been smiling in the past 8 years: Official data from the government-owned agency, National Bureau of Statistics paint a gory picture: unemployment is projected above 33.5% by the end of 2023; inflation rate is over 22.5%; Hanke’s Misery Index already ranks Nigeria sixth on its scale. Brookings Institute’s World Poverty Clock had ranked Nigeria as the world’s capital of poverty, taking over from India, in spite of our enormous oil earnings according to OPEC’s Revenue Fact Sheet. On the table of ranking on Human Development Index, Nigerian is today 186th out of 189 countries.

For university undergraduates in Nigeria, it should be Good Friday too after all they have never had a strike run so long that so many of them had to resort ‘okada work’, because there was no hope of resolution of the imbroglio, so much that the Education Minister came out and openly admitted that he had failed without any consequences- no sack and no requests for resignation letter. Everyone just looked on, playing the ostrich, hiding behind a finger.

We thought it was hell when Obasanjo took over government in 1999, with a depleted foreign reserve, conveniently blamed on returning Nigeria to democracy, but today we seem to be situated in the pit of hell. There is a gulf of difference between hell and the pit of hell. OBJ managed with oil prices at $29 per barrel and reduced Nigeria’s debt stock by a considerable margin. But between 2015 and today, the gains of those years, have been completely eroded with a staggering debt portfolio of over N77tr at over $70 per barrel of oil today. Yet a few days to the end of this tenure, the administration was still eager to borrow more with so much panache. The Minster of Works, Raji Fashola only yesterday restated it that the President was free to borrow even on the morning of May 29. What manner of father leaves debts for his children and children’s children to pay? Only fathers like Unoka in Things Fall Apart!

What about the fight against corruption? In the past 8 years, we have witnessed corruption not just being announced but walking with the gait of ‘Oga na master’, with a walking stick and a fitting hat, so much that politicians who have been walking in and out of EFCC custody are not even hiding, but gearing to take over the mantle of leadership at both executive and legislative rungs.

It would be Good Friday when we sit back and remember the pains we were made to pass through due to Naira redesign. The little Nigerians had gathered were not accessible and hunger took over the land, only for us to return to the old Naira notes after so much expenses on the policy. An unprecedented policy summersault. Worse is even what we got from our general elections, despite the promises and the big budgets.

Perhaps the efforts at stoking the seeds of disunity amongst Nigerians should make us all record a good song to mark the Good Friday. We have always known our fault lines, but rather than manage it, the past 8 years exploited it. But there is an expiration date for all problems.

Happy Good Friday, this Friday!

*Ngozi Emedolibe, is a communications strategist, journalist and newspaper editor.

QUOTE:

We have always known our fault lines, but rather than manage it, the past 8 years exploited it. But there is an expiration date for all problems.

Happy Good Friday, this Friday!