Christmas is a time to show compassion. It is a Christian holiday honoring the birth of Jesus.
The popular yelutide song for kids, “christmas is coming, mama buy shoes for me” is a joyous song that children, teenagers sing in anticipation of yelutide season where buying of new clothes, shoes as well as exhange gifts is the order of the day but today, such narration has changed because many can hardly afford to eat once a day talkless of three times.
Early 2023, bag of rice was sold for 25,000 naira but between January and December, people now buy a bag of rice between 55, 000 to 60,000 naira in a country where minimum wage is 30,000 naira.
2023 was an elective year, power changed hand from a democratically elected government to another. Former President Buhari handed over to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and immediately, he started implementing hard policies from removal of subsidy to increase in tax. This singular action pushed fuel from 175 naira to 620 naira as we speak today. This has automatic impact on every area of the economy from bad to worse.
Transportation skyrocketed, and it affected prices of goods every single day. Movement of goods attracted a lot and the consumers are the one bearing the brunt. Agricultural products in the market also doubled and there are more goods with fewer purchases due to cash scarcity. Not only that, Nigerians now buy cash with cash leaving people to suffer more for what they know nothing about.
Many of this current quagmire has led to the influx of youths relocating abroad in search of greener pastures. This has added more burden on foreign exchange as dollar rosed from N700 to N1200 within 6 month of Bola Tinubu’s Government making the country’s inflation the highest in the history of the country standing at 27.33%.
Upon entering the “ember” months, Nigerians are always anticipating change of homes, purchase of new cars, shopping galore but in 2023, everything changed. No more unnecessary spending, travelling as it was in the past. What is responsible for this is not far from the high cost of everything.
The birth of Jesus is the most powerful sign and message of hope in a world. People are currently feeding on message of hope with empty stomach.
Despite the poor economy, the Government has refused to let the poor breathe. Standard of living in the country has reached a suffocation level where only the rich are the ones that can afford basic and essential life.
As we celebrate 2023 Christmas in Nigeria, it is time for the government to wake up from its slumber. Christmas celebrations is a time for merriment and for the tradition to continue, Government must raise the standard of living to a level that the poor can afford basic needs where the sound of Christmas is coming should excite Nigerians with more money in circulation for people to spend for shopping.
Written by Tosin Adesile