ANOTHER New Year is here with us. We thank God for the privilege of seeing the year 2016. Many who started 2015 with us were unable to see it through, as a result of death. But it has pleased the Almighty in His infinite mercy for us to be counted amongst the living. This, my dear readers, is enough for us to say thank you to Him. When we give thanks to God and honour His immortal name, He smiles down on us and allows His grace to permeate our lives.

So much has been said about the year 2016. So many have predicted a year of economic hardship, hinging their permutation on the poor state of the nation’s economy. They have warned that if care were not taken, many would perish as a result of hunger. That may be true to a large extent. Several states are unable to pay their workers salaries as at when due and many companies are closing down by the day. Besides, the rate of inflation is quite alarming. And to compound issues, our professors and economists seem lost on the best way to salvage the situation. They come out with so much theories and suggestions on how to remedy the dismal situation, but with little positive impact on the overall well being of Nigerians. In all of this, we do not need a soothsayer to warn us of difficult days ahead. So much of our nation’s wealth have been looted and plundered by our ‘leaders’ in the name of rendering public service. So much ill-gotten wealth has been laundered and many more loaded in several empty ‘water tankers’ such that at the end of the day, the account books just refuse to balance. No wonder then that someone once said we are running a voodoo economy.

Well, as we enter this New Year, my message to all Nigerians, especially the downtrodden masses who have for long been at the receiving end of purposeless leadership, is not to despair. Help is in the offing. No matter how difficult it may seem, things will surely get better. To the ordinary man, it may seem as if there is no hope, but in the eyes of God, all things are possible. He is able to turn our sorrows into joy. He is able to drive away poverty and grant us abundance of his blessings, if only we trust in Him. There is, however, a caveat to this. We cannot just fold our hands and expect God to do all the work from heaven. He expects us to collaborate with Him by putting some effort. How? The economic situation we find ourselves in is a wake-up call for us to look beyond oil and begin to pay more attention to agriculture and solid minerals. This is not a new advice! But no one seems to be doing something about it. I challenge our government both at the states and federal level to begin to put to practice alternative means of enriching our economy. We don’t God to come down from heaven and given us manna. All the manna we need is embedded in our soil. All we need is to summon the willpower to dig down and bring out all the abundant resources lying fallow underneath.

Very Rev. Msgr. Osu, Director, Social Communications, Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos.