The 2024 Christmas in Nigeria was, to many, neither merry nor mirthful. It’s mournful. You could almost cut through the puff of gloom. You could almost hear people singing a dirge to mark the darkling realities of pain in a season of pleasure in other climes.

The 2024 Christmas will stand out as the infamous winner of the diadem as the ‘Bitterest Christmas.’ For once, I saw Nigerians truly united in grief. I saw men and women amble in malls without making a purchase. They simply touch an item, glance at the price and drop it almost immediately. Pick and drop, as we used to call it way back in our secondary school days. It was to be expected. Ahead of Christmas, food and allied inflation had nosed up north as though in a competition to outdo the other. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has, in recent years, not been a bringer of good news. This year, it did not disappoint.

Every stat about food inflation was a death angel, akin to a wasp sting. Think on this: Food inflation rate in November 2024 was 39.93% on a year-on-year basis, 7.08% points higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (32.84%). And this: On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in November 2024 was 2.98% which shows 0.05% points increase compared to the rate recorded in October 2024 (2.94%).

And this: Headline inflation rate rose to 34.60% in November 2024 from 33.88% in October 2024. This showed an increase of 0.72% points compared to the October 2024 inflation rate, according to NBS’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services.

On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 6.40% points higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (28.20%). This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in November 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year (2023). Don’t get confused with these jargons. They simply point to the fact that prices of goods and services are bullishly climbing up the ladder from month to month, year to year. This explains why the meaty Noiler chicken you used to know and buy at N8,000 to N10,000 is now flaunting a cocky price of N25,000 to N30,000 and daring you to buy if you can. And I wager, many Nigerians couldn’t dare the Noiler, this time. They settled for the lean and tired old layer at N10,000, an amount that could get you two of its type this time, last year.

But no matter, Christmas still remains that time of the year when mortal man unwinds in celebratory indulgence. A time to love and be loved; a time to give and to receive. It’s the most celebrated period in human history. The Christmas period evokes joy. It’s a period of mirth. For some, it is a time to take that much postponed holiday; undertake short and long trips just to reunite with loved ones.

Christmas in Christendom commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ in a seedy manger in Bethlehem of Judea. This is still contentious, though, as some believe Jesus was born sometime in the month of October. But whether in December or October or any other time, the most important thing is that once-upon-a-time, a Saviour was born. He was born to bring ‘goodwill to all men’. Jesus came to set the captives free; to bring light to a world steeped in the fog of darkness. Jesus came to heal the sick, raise the dead, turn despair to hope and bring comfort to the broken-hearted. He came to do good to a very bad and unappreciative man. Above all, Jesus was born to bring salvation to all of mankind, to those who believe.

When he was born, he did not choose the home of royalty or the bourgeoisie in Israel. No trumpet flourish heralded his birth. No klieglights; no red carpet; and no popping of champagne. Heaven did not engage the services of the best gynaecologists in the land, neither was the best marketing and event management consultants engaged to manage his birth and attendant ceremonies including his naming ceremony. He came to man through the poorest of the poor: the family of a carpenter. Yet, there were scholarly men at that time; there were lawyers, successful merchants and wealthy royalties who dwelt in marbled homes. Heaven shunned these people and sent Jesus through a peasant virgin betrothed to a peasant carpenter.

When Jesus came, he did not discriminate. He dined with the poor and the rich. He made friends with sinners including notorious sinners in the community. He was lowly and accessible to all. Notorious thieves, adulterers, tax collectors, soldiers who had killed many at war and soiled their hands with blood and certified failures were his companions. His motley crowd of disciples was a mix of the timid, the lettered, the unlettered, the failures and public sinners. But he made them his allies and turned them from failures and despairing men to bold and unfazed role models.

Jesus as a leader was non-discriminatory. He was simple and full of empathy. The sick and down-trodden were so close to him that they could even touch him. He fed the hungry in their thousands and never put a charge to it. The blind, the widow, the mentally deranged and the possessed all profited from his fountain of goodwill.

As a leader, he did not breathe down on his followers in self-righteous aloofness. He did not bark out orders to his disciples.

He was simply service-driven. He ate the same broth from the same plate with his motley crowd. No special plate; no special ration. He made himself of no significance yet he was full of heavenly glory and majesty. He was accountable to his followers. They had a purse but he did not mind it; did not dip his hand into it to satiate a flamboyant lifestyle. He led no such life. No ostentation; no showy display.

Christmas, as a memorial for the birth of Jesus, ought to bring ‘goodwill to all men’. The celebration of Christmas should also mean the dismantling of the barricades and barriers that partition us: the rich from the poor, the leader from the led and the bourgeoisie from the hoi polloi. Christmas means feeding the hungry and giving water to the thirsty. It does not, and should not, mean using other people’s money to gratify our prodigal indulgence.

The 2024 Christmas was the bitterest for many Nigerians. May we never see another bitter Christmas in Jesus name..Amen!