Unpopular side with Yinka Ijabiyi
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This is Nigeria’s first official end of year under the hammer of recession. It has been an amazingly difficult year; one with all the evil trappings of frustrated recession, sufferings and troubles unlimited. It’s been a long while since Nigeria has had it this bad; at least a named version of it. We are Nigeria; things have always been difficult and bad for the generality of the populace. But we tend not to globalname it like we have done this year. And that naming is significant in itself. It is said that knowing the solution to your problems begins with knowing the name of what hails you. If you don’t know what is wrong or what to call what is wrong with you, how do you tackle it? So, calling our ailment what it is has helped us stay focused and put life and living in perspective. As a country and as a people, 2016 hasn’t been the best year for us by all indications. But it certainly hasn’t been our worst either.
I’ll leave the high and low lights of this recessive year to the economists, philosophers, strategists and other such expensive progressive talkers without movement professionals to do us the honours. In the next few days and weeks, the ghost of 2016 will be laid bare in numbers. The data will soon start pouring in and we will all ooh and aah over the devastations and the way the year that just ended laid waste to our lives, our pockets and our everything. The data will scare us and we will wonder how did we survive and cry out that we can’t take much more of this when they tell us to prepare for more of the same in 2017. But if they told us 2017 will be the year we are liberated from this recession, we will probably snigger and ask whether they be magicians. They can’t pull a rabbit out a hat in this instance. That’s the for sure thing.
The test of the recession was really this December. It was a very hungry Christmas for a lot of people. But for some reason, all the places of festivities and enjoyments were full to the brim. ATMs dispensed but had queues longer than non-recessive times. Whose money were all these people collecting? Markets were full to the brim and you could barely put one foot in front of another in most markets; what were so many people than usual buying and selling if we were in such recessions? Places of enjoyment and entertainment were filled to the brim with revellers. Houses belonging to wise men from the East were padlocked up as they are every year as they headed out to their own Bethlehem to celebrate, show off and prove to their lowly village brethren that they have hammered. Beaches were full. Clubs were full. Life was full and bubbling. If the recession affected you this year, don’t worry, it was just your turn. Last year, it was someone else that it affected. But this year they hammered. Next year, you could be hammering all over again.
It is not the recession that is the problem. It is our mentality. This year, data shows that our agric sector grew because as soon as free money disappeared, more people looked to the land. Others looked to their hands. More looked to their brains. While others still felt comfortable sidon looking and analysing, complaining and blaming government, witches from their villages, their parents, their business partners, the weather and everything else apart from themselves. It is not the lemonade that’s the problem. It’s recognising the worth of our lemons.
In 2017, if it is to be, it is up to you. Know that and you’ll be just fine.
