2021: A year to forget

The year 2021 will be a year most Nigerians will forget in a hurry and the reasons are not far-fetched. This year, most Nigerians experienced the good, bad, comical and ugly. I think the bad dominated the media space this year.

As usual, some men of God have started making prophecies and predictions for the new year. The Ghanaian police have issued a stern warning to their clerics to stop predicting doom or face the consequences. Many Nigerians have called on the authorities to replicate the same.

This year also saw the demise of many notable Nigerians. I think the most shocking death this year was that of Pastor TB Joshua. When I first saw the news, I dismissed it as fake news — “TB Joshua can’t die”. I also heard his members trooped to church to confirm and it was the same story everywhere. Nobody believed he could die. Some of his members waited for him to resurrect all to no avail.

Also, COVID-19 is still with us with a new variant coming out every second. Whether by divine providence or sheer luck, Nigeria has been able to withstand the different variants of COVID-19. The doomsday prediction that Africa will be picking dead bodies on the streets didn’t come to pass and it will not come to pass. It is instructive to note that we are recording more deaths from malaria, cholera, and Lassa fever lately and that’s where we need to beam our searchlight on.

Social media went on overdrive this year as our celebrities gave us maximum entertainment with their spats. It was basically one week one trouble. If the spat or gist trended more than a week it must be very juicy. From Tonto Dikeh, Janemena, Bobrisky, Annie Idibia, Jaaruma, and Regina Daniels all gave us entertainment. The entertainment they gave us this year was enough to cure depression.

This year also saw the rise of unknown gunmen in the south-east. More people died in the south-east this year at the hands of unknown gunmen than the last five years put together.

As usual, many media houses have started awarding their men of the year. People who stood out in the year.

Personally, the person or persons of the year are the bandits. I remember in 2001, Time Magazine awarded Osama Bin Laden as the person of the year. This year it has to be the bandits. According to Nigeria Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank, as well as quarterly reports released by the Kaduna state government from January to September, about 3,125 innocent persons were killed and 2,703 abducted by bandits this year.

I don’t think a week went by that we didn’t read reports of mindless killings and kidnappings by bandits. In fact daily not weekly. The bandits have even gone ahead to impose taxes on some communities in Niger, Sokoto, and Zamfara. They have taken the baton from their nefarious cousins, Boko Haram.

As we enter the New Year, we enter with new hopes, dreams, and aspirations. We all hope to see the activities of bandits and Boko Haram reduced to the barest minimum. We all want to see an improved economy. We want to see the end of COVID-19, we want to resume our normal lives.

As we enter the election season, get ready to see clowns and pretenders hustling for the throne. I don’t know who will become president in 2023 but I know who won’t become president. We hope to see a better 2022.