2023: Bye bye to jati jati

BY MIKE NZEAGWU

It was one the songs in Yoruba that captivated and arrested me when I first joined The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in June 1996 shortly after I got married. It was a sort of victory song after a ‘powerful ministration’ and ‘warfare prayers’ usually by a ‘deliverance minister’. “Bye bye to jati jati, bye bye to regbe regbe, in the name of Jesus, bye bye to jati jati, in the name of Jesus, bye bye to regbe regbe”, the song goes.

The song immediately animates the congregation as they sing and dance in euphoria of some spiritual triumphalism. There is so much gusto in the dance and singing as congregants demonstrate dismissively with the waving of the hands all perceived negative occurrences in their lives. Not ashamed to admit that I don’t understand and speak the Yoruba language six years then since my sojourn in Lagos (it is now more than three decades and the situation has not significantly improved), I had to seek the help of a Yoruba-speaking brother for translation of the song to English. Literally it means bye bye to rubbish and nonsense: spiritual, economic, marital. Name it. Whatever represents evil and adversity in your life should go.

No doubt 2023 was full of rubbish and nonsense for Nigeria and majority of Nigerians. This is against the run of play, as they say in football. The year had started with great promise of Nigeria’s renaissance especially on the political front. There was the general elections in the first quarter of the year which offered Nigerians the opportunity to choose their leaders at national and state elections. Having endured gruesome eight years of hardship under President Muhammed Buhari and the All Progressive Congress (APC) Nigerians were eager to effect a change in leadership and usher in a breath of fresh air.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu had promised a free, fair and credible elections. The Commission had invested about N400billion of taxpayers’ money and donor agencies in acquiring technology that will ensure real time uploading of announced results from the polling units. This was to ensure that the results are not manipulated in transit from the polling units to the collation centres at all levels: ward, local government, state and national. Prof. Yakubu even went to Chatham House, an independent policy institute based in London to promise the whole world that there will be real time electronic transfer (transmission) of final collated results from the polling units to the Irev, the INEC’s “innovative” viewing portal. The INEC did not play by its own rules. On the day of national elections the BVAS was able to transmit the results of National Assembly elections( Senate and House of Representatives) to the Irev but when it was time to transmit Presidential election results , there a “glitch”(read corruption and sabotage). This ensured that the result of the presidential election was massively altered across states to favour the candidate that was eventually declared winner by INEC at 4am when Nigerians were fast asleep in their homes.

Not surprisingly, both local and international independent observers condemned the election as lacking credibility and scored INEC far below pass mark. It was a jati jati and regbe regbe election. INEC and Yakubu had disappointed Nigerians with the shoddy manner the elections were conducted. They had the opportunity to redeem themselves in the off-season Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states but like congenital dullard they failed woefully. This nonsense hopefully is gone with 2023.

What can we say about the Naira redesign policy that brought untold hardship and increased multi-dimensional poverty among Nigerians. It was another rubbish policy that was not well thought through. This was introduced during the run up to the general elections ostensibly to curb vote buying by politicians. But what did we see? The new Naira notes were delivered to the homes of these politicians by bank some bank managers while the ordinary people throng the banks every day (some strip themselves naked in protest) just to get the elusive new notes. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, people were buying the new notes with the old one at some agreed exchange rate. Absurd! Nonsense! This jati jati, thankfully is gone with 2023.

The fuel subsidy removal is another regbe regbe in 2023. At the inauguration of the new administration, Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was just sworn in as President announced off-handedly that fuel subsidy was gone. This was after his formal speech as President, meaning that it was not part of the written address. The out-gone administration of Muhammed Buhari had provided fuel subsidy in the budget till the end of June 2023. So why was President Tinubu in hurry? Nothing was in place to cushion the effect of the sudden jump in the pump price of fuel from N165 to N500 and now selling for N700 or more in some cities. Inflation onst major goods especially food items have gone beyond the reach of the average Nigerian. This ‘rubbish’ has refused to go with 2023. Same with the merging of the official and parallel exchange rates which was also announced by President Tinubu before he even stepped into the grounds of Aso Rock Villa. The jury is still out on the economic benefits of this policy as we are an import-dependent economy and hence not able to get enough foreign currency into the system through export of goods and services, especially finished goods. The impact has been devastating. Today one Unites States dollar exchanges for about N1,200 up from about N400 before the policy with the Euro and British Pound Sterling exchanging higher. This has had a spiral effect on almost everything sold in Nigeria including laterite( red sand used in filling new building foundation) a gift from God Almighty which now sells for N80,000 t0 N100,000 up from N40,000 for 20 tons tipper.

The increase in killings and banditry across the country which seems to have defied military solutions or as military experts put it, “kinetic and non-kinetic approach” leaves 2023 as one of the bloodiest in recent memory. From Benue to Plateau; from Zamfara to Imo, it has been ‘tears, sorrows and blood’ as thousands have been killed or maimed and millions displaced from their ancestral homes by the bandits. To compound the problem, the Nigerian Army on December 3, 2023 sent over 150 residents of Tudun Biri village in Kaduna state who had gathered for religious celebration to their early grave when two drone strikes “mistakenly” hit them. The Nigerian Army owned up after initial denial. Top echelon of the Army and politicians visited to commiserate with the families of the victims vowing to punish perceived offenders after a thorough investigation.

My family was also hit, very hard indeed. But not by air strike from the Nigerian Army. On July 10, my first son Ifeanyi who had reported at his office on Victoria Island, Lagos on that fateful Monday morning was pronounced dead by 11.06am. According to the account from his office, one of the top Pension Fund Managers in Lagos, Ifeanyi had taken the food he brought from home to the staff canteen at about 10am to eat. On his way to the canteen he was playing music from his phone using earpiece as a listening device. He stopped by at tables to great friends and colleagues as he has being working from home for two weeks. But he collapsed suddenly in his chair while eating. The cleaner who was the only person there when the incident happened called for help. Ifeanyi was rushed to the hospital where doctors instead of attending to him as emergency demands were asking him questions to “to get his medical history”. Ifeanyi told them “call my mummy” and after that he relapsed and could not be revived. He was 26. The pain is still very fresh like yesterday. On Christmas day everyone at home cried freely. It was the first Christmas without Ifeanyi in 26 years. The vacuum his death created cannot be filled humanly speaking. But we have since surrendered to God Almighty. It was the height of jati jati and regbe regbe in 2023.

As we journey in the new year 2024, we can only pray and expect the best as individuals and as a nation. Bye bye to the rubbish and nonsense of 2023. Never again!

Nzeagwu, a PR Consultant and public affairs analyst wrote from Lagos.