By Francis Ewherido

It is another festive season and I am feeling particularly happy and looking forward to Christmas. All my children were home from school eight days ago. I missed them and they apparently missed home. My eldest daughter and eldest son seem to have matured much more over the last three months, they are providing better leadership. But my 11-year-old son came home somewhat withdrawn.

I thought somebody had dealt a blow on his self-esteem or taken advantage of his innocence, but he says he is okay. I travelled that road 38 years ago as a fresh boarder in secondary school. Hate mongers and sadistic seniors almost ruined my life and I never told my parents anything.

I intend to probe further over the holiday period, although he is already coming out of his shell. Deciding to send a preteen to the boarding house is not always easy for parents.

I allowed them only Saturday to rest and off we went last Sunday to celebrate with my friend of 29 years, Mrs. Mary Ogugua, who turned 50 earlier in the week. Birthday celebrations continued at my cousin’s, Dicta Onuorah, whose daughter, Carissa, was celebrating her fifth birthday, while I went to church for my parish’s Carol of Nine Lessons. It was a beautiful Sunday, wonderfully spent.

Right now, we are all in Ipetumodu, Osun State, paying our last respect to Mama Esther Segilola Afolabi, the grandmother of my sister-in-law, Tolu, who died at the ripe age of 105. From there, we shall go and spend a few days with my elder brother, whom they have been itching to visit. This, after all, is Christmas season and Christmas is partly about family.

How times have changed. When I was growing up, Christmas was about wearing new clothes, eating rice and chicken,visiting friends and family within the town. Then we had to deal with the nightmare of unreliable tailors. Twice, I remember spending the earlier part of Christmas day with tailors, crying while other children were already all over the town, strutting about the streets, in their new outfits and sunglasses that were worn well into the night.

Although never mentioned, Christmas was also a time to know the good and bad cooks among family friends and relatives. It did not start today; many married women had always needed catering lessons, formal or informal. Call it backward integration, if you like.

New clothes at Christmas mean nothing to my children; also Christmas rice and chicken. All they want is to travel and be reunited with other family members. Until 2013, my hometown was the entire family’s melting pot at Christmas, but nobody wants to go back there for now. Christmas is a season of joy, not a time to be reminded of the painful loss of a loved one, which my hometown currently represents.

It is Christmas time, let us be merry. I know everybody has one baggage or the other, but this is the time to cast all our baggage on Him who has invited all who are weary and overburdened to come to him for succour. After all, we are commemorating His birthday. Ignore the distraction about the timing of the birthday. In communication, we call it channel noise. The Christendom is firm and uniform that a Saviour, the Christ, was born to save mankind.

For me, that is all that counts. Since 1980, I recall people complaining every end of year that the year had been the hardest they had seen. The complaints are all over the place again; PDP and APC members are trading blames on who is responsible for the current economic hardship.

Ironically, since 1980, when I started hearing the complaints, people have not stopped marrying, starting families, starting businesses, or building houses and other activities that involve spending of money. When I came to Lagos for the first time in 1987, there were no Lekki, no Victoria Island Extension; in fact, much of Victoria Island was bush.

There were no Magodo, Magboro, Mowe and Gbagada was very minimal. All these places are now built up, yet everybody is complaining of hardship. Na who be fool? I have learnt not to personalise general “problems” or swallow pain killers for everybody’s headache. Happiness is a choice and state of mind, not necessarily induced by external factors. Let us create our own happiness, external factors notwithstanding.

Oil, our main revenue earner, is selling for below 40 US dollars per barrel and an expert in the field told me it might fall under 30 dollars and we should not expect any appreciable rise in oil prices until 2017 and beyond. So wetin man go do? Hug transformer?  For where?

The current economic situation actually offers us the opportunity to diversify our economy and make it less vulnerable to shocks arising from drop in oil price. Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore developed without oil and other mineral resources.

It is Christmas season, a season of joy and merriment; I just want to spend quality time with my children and bond with them before they go back to school. At least that does not require any financial expenditure. I will also reach out to mama, my siblings, other family members and friends. I would have loved to spend either Christmas or New Year with mama, but it does not look feasible this year. We shall see.

Beyond family and friends, let us share the joy of the season with others: old people, motherless babies, poor widows, orphans, internally displaced people, the underpaid and overworked security man in your street and other less privileged people.

It would be nice if we did so quietly without a show; leave the razzmatazz to corporate organisations and politicians. Once the story or photos get into the media, it is no longer in the spirit of the season, you are on an ego trip, image boosting or other public relations activities. A Merry Christmas to you all.