…Economic woes precede celebration  ……As Christian faithful dare odds to celebrate in low key

While Christian faithful across the world celebrate the death of Jesus Christ today, their counterparts in Nigeria do so with heavy hearts,  JOEL AJAYI writes.

The past week brazenly brought to the fore the seriousness of the current economic woes bedeviling Nigeria. In  the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and Oyo and Anambra States, the hunger and the need to survive, pushed about 70 persons, many of whom were children to their untimely deaths.

At least 35 children were killed in Oyo State on Wednesday last week, and on Saturday, 22 people died in Anambra State while 10 died in the FCT, Abuja, where more than 1,000 people had gathered at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Asokoro to receive clothes and food.

There is hunger in this Nigeria, every Nigerian needs food,” one woman, in tears, told Arise television after the stampede in Abuja.No doubt, the current economic crisis which has pushed inflation rate to a 28-year high of 34.6% is largely to be blamed for these deaths.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), at least 63% of Nigeria’s population of over 210 million is poor.

No wonder some of those who died in Abuja had waited overnight outside the church in cold weather for the chance to enter early, according to Loveth Inyang, a witness who rescued a baby from the crush.While such stampedes aren’t new in Nigeria, people’s desperation to survive is making crowd control more difficult.

Accounts from witnesses and police in Abuja and Anambra showed that the stampedes occurred before the events started as people tried to secure prime positions.

But even as the people have been blamed for their desperation, organizers of such charity events often do not consider security a priority, according to Ademola Adetuberu, who runs the Abuja-based Barricade Executive Protection security firm.

Meanwhile, the number of such events is increasing as philanthropists and organizations are struggling to meet the growing demand for food.

“If organizers of such events brainstorm more, get professionals to advise them and have a budget for security, this can be prevented,” Adetuberu said.

But no matter what is either said or done, the victims who are still lying in hospital beds struggling while to survive despite the physical pains and emotional tumult they are currently under going, as well as those mourning the deaths of loved ones, their Christmas and New Year celebrations will no doubt be bland and uneventful.

Tte prices of commodities, especially foodstuff and other essentials have gone up astronomically. This price hike, though seasonal, has seen that of this year reach surprisingly high prices.A visit to satellite towns and suburbs like Mararaba and Masaka in Nasarawa State, Suleja, Maje, Sabon Wuse in Niger State, and Nyanya, Gwagwa, Jiwa, and Karmo, Dei Dei in the FCT where people usually throng to for shopping as prices of commodities in these places are evidently lower compared to within Abuja’s city center, showed an obvious low patronage being experienced by traders.

Despite the availability of clothes, hampers, wears, and other household items in markets, prices are still on the high side, thereby pushing would-be buyers further away. This price hike coupled with the harsh economy has made the shopping spree this Yuletide season drastically decrease.

Speaking to this reporter, Mama Nkechi, a popular food vendor in Mararaba said: “this year’s Christmas and New year, my husband and I have told our six children that they should take it as they see it. Before now, we would always get new clothes for all our children, cook enough food to go round the family as well as neighbors and visitors. We usually slaughter nothing less than two big chickens, plus fish for Christmas, and the same for the New Year.  But this year, it is only our three younger children that we could get new clothes for; their older siblings will have to make do with clothes they have been wearing but are still in very good condition.

“For the first time, I had to go and buy rice in “mudu” for Christmas, and I have already bought and guarded our one Christmas chicken. We will have to buy beef in the market for the New Year; this is really serious but we are still grateful to god because there are many who can’t even afford what we can.

”Also, another respondent who gave her name as Esther Ventim, said: “Apart from public office holders, their cronies, big businessmen and women, amd and other privileged few, i can tell you that a vast majority of us will celebrate the Christmas and New Year in a low key. In my family, we are prepared for the worst celebration so far, and my husband and I have already prepared the minds of our children for that.

“All we hope for is that things improve by this time next year so we can have a better celebration.”

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