Recession
did not kill Christmas celebrations in parts of Lagos, south-west Nigeria
Sunday, December 25.
Joy,
sharing, love, laughter, dining, winning, visiting, boasting, worshipping, etc,
flowed like the rivers of living waters on this special day in Lagos.
The change
mantra, which the Muhammadu Buhari-led regime is preaching did not kill it
either. Neither did the anti-corruption war.
This gospel
of change rather forced some of us to cut our coat according to our sizes. A
case of suffering and smiling?
It is
painful. Buhari is not allowing money to flow freely, a friend who is afraid of
either the police or DSS operatives whispered into my ears the other day. Timid
folk, I must tell you.
But, let tell
ourselves the truth. Recession and change slowed down the tempo of the
celebrations.
My beloved
brothers and sisters, I provided the rice, money, drink and other necessities for
my family. But, I did not forget my good old ogogoro. Call me any name you
wish, but I drink in moderation.
Some
Christmas crazy folks may have contemplated killing their parents to buy hampers,
shoes, or clothes for the celebrations, as if this is the last Christmas to
celebrate.
Traders of all
sorts complained of low patronage, transporters became reckless, increased
their transport fares by as much as 200% along all the routes in Lagos and were
driving as if they have taken excess of the stuffs, not ogogoro ha hah ha ah ah.
The storyline
did not stop there. Sex hawkers applied all the tricks they know to convince
men with insatiable libido to patronize them, by fire by force.
Some of
these hawkers in high density populated areas like: Agege, Iyana-Ipaja,
Ojuelegba, Orile Iganmu, Mushin, Ikotun, Ogba, Ikorodu, etc, collected as low
as N300 for quick service.
What is quick
service? Well, it is having sex with a prostitute and realizing within 2-minutes,
even if the man has taken Viagra, ogogoro or any of the sex enhancing drugs being
sold by those Hausa folks.
But, around
high brow areas such as: Victoria Island, Lekki, parts of Ikeja, Ikoyi; the
storyline is not the same for sex hungry men.
They must
cough out money in local or foreign currencies to pay for sex. Yes, recession
or no recession, some folks out there could pay my salary for life.
Further
observations revealed that the mad rush for Christmas celebrations forced some
bank customers to turn their banks to a vigil night camping ground.
Some of them
turned up at the ATM points as early as 4.30 am from Saturday, December 23 to
make withdrawals.
They reined
abuses on the banks for allegedly programming their machines to either dispense
less cash or stop coughing out cash out-rightly.
To these desperate
bank customers, network failures, temporally out of service or any other those technical
grammar associated with banking do not exist in their heads.
These folks could blame Buhari for most of the
problems they have created as if the president is a magician or miracle worker.
But, on the
other hand, must your friends, co-tenants, colleagues, pastor, imam, babalawo
etc, blackmail you to spend beyond your income to celebrate the so-called birth
of Jesus Christ? Bad copy, if I must be sincere with you, my dear readers.
Christmas
celebration is over. We are waiting for the new year. After this, January 2017
comes. May God give us the ability to be moderate in times
of celebrations, AMEN.
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