At Christmas, seeking a Nigeria that works for all
It is evident that religion dominates the Nigerian landscape. But whether or not the values of religions professed by millions of Nigerians can be found in the hearts of Nigerians and their leaders and within the borders of Nigeria is a matter that calls for introspection and interrogation. Today, Christmas’s religious feast allows Nigerians to do just that. But that is if, despite the seemingly irresistible temptation to reduce Christmas to buying, selling, travelling, eating and drinking, the powerful message of Christmas is grasped. It is a message that speaks to Nigerians in general, but to Nigerian Christians in a special way.
In the Christian tradition, the event that is joyfully commemorated at Christmas is the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, an event which Christians believe was the coming down to earth of the mighty God in the human form of a fragile infant. The Christian religion teaches that when God came down to earth in the birth of Jesus, it was in an era when powerful men ruled the world. There was Caesar, the emperor in Rome, and Pilate, his legate in Jerusalem, two men who represented Roman imperialism’s ubiquitous and invincible political and military might. They both wielded power over life and death. Then, there was Herod, the kinglet they installed and sustained in power. And there were Annas and Caiaphas, symbols of a religious establishment, professedly preserving religious values, but practically self-serving and distant from God. For the evangelists in the Bible, therefore, writers of the Gospel narrative of the Christian religion, these men considered themselves so powerful that they could not grasp the moral intent of power. The world does not seem to have changed much since then.
It is still the case that those who wield power are sometimes blinded by the power they wield. Today, the poor and the weak remain victims of abuse of power in the world and in nations where there is no room for peace because there is no room for justice, no room for justice because there is no room for truth, no room for truth because there is no room for love.
Like all tyrants in the history of humanity, powerful rulers of the time of Jesus failed to understand that where leadership is authentic, where political power is not bereft of morality, power is neither wielded to crush nor deployed to deceive but deployed to save. The consequence of their lack of comprehension of the actual dynamics of power was their inability to give room to the poor, especially to the one who was born to save the world, but was enwrapped in poverty and powerlessness, born in a place reserved for rearing cattle.
For us in Nigeria, a land where nothing seems to work, there are lessons to learn. What Christianity commemorates at Christmas is a gift, a reminder, an invitation, and a challenge. It is a gift of God’s offer of friendship to the world. Yet, in this gift can be found a reminder, an invitation and a challenge to make Nigeria work.
If Nigeria is to work for all, not just for the rich and powerful, we must assume the task of embarking on a project of building a nation where the most vulnerable are neither ignored nor further victimised by policies and behaviour that work against their interest. We must make a nation where the Nigerians can flourish. The impression is being repeatedly created, however, that there is no room for poor Nigerians in Nigeria, just as, in the world and time of Caesar and his political, military and religious allies, there was no room for Jesus.
Today, even at Christmas, many Nigerians see living in their own country as internal exile. They see their own country as less and less habitable. For decades, Nigeria has been saddled with a political elite wearing the toga of self-entitlement; an elite that refuses to be accountable to the people in a supposedly democratic polity. Because many young Nigerians see living in their own country as living in exile, they would instead leave the country in what we have come to describe as the famous japa syndrome. But then, countries of the global north to which they would wish to migrate are formulating and implementing increasingly hostile and inhospitable immigration policies meant to keep them at home. One such country has just announced its intention to begin implementing a policy of two days of interview in the New Year before granting a visa. So, there is neither room at home nor place in foreign lands.
Nigeria might have been a colonial construct, an amalgam that we have failed to transform into a nation. Yet, this richly endowed land is a gift from the Creator. It is scandalous that millions who live on this land of riches are living in indescribable poverty, while a few, the powerful political elite and their friends, like the powerful at the time of Jesus, are living in so much comfort that they cannot understand why the people cry about discomfort.
Accepting the invitation and embracing the challenge of Christmas begins with the consciousness of our God-given capacity to build a land where there is room for everyone at the table. The consciousness of this capacity must be accompanied by a political and moral will to build a nation. No responsible world leader or citizen of another country would ever deride it as a haven of terrorists and the poverty capital of the world.
Failure to build a nation where there is room for everyone to blossom continues to fuel an inferno of disaffection exploited by ethnic jingoism and religious bigotry. But those who truly understand the message of Christmas will work for a Nigeria that works for all.
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