As a child, I used to be filled with excitement around this time of year, eagerly awaiting the drive down to the village once school broke for Christmas. Those holiday trips were the highlight of my childhood—new clothes, new shoes, and an endless feast of food, drink, and goodness waited for us in Osumenyi. And then there were the friends I only had the chance to see during the Christmas break when their families, like mine, made the long trip from wherever they lived to the village.
It was a season of joy, family, and abundance, when everything seemed bright and everyone was extra generous. Uncles and aunts doled out “Christmas” money so that I often returned to Enugu with extra pocket money.
But if I were a child in Nigeria today, I doubt my experience would be quite the same. Security challenges and the soaring cost of living have made the festive season more of a burden than a blessing for many. I don’t know how many of my friends’ families would have returned. And of those that did, I wonder how many of our parents would have felt as comfortable as they did back in the day allowing us to roam around and bike for hours, moving in and out of each other’s homes.
In addition to that, people are struggling to make ends meet; folks are lining up for free bread in Lagos, and in Kaduna, we have seen people gathering grains of rice and spaghetti that spilled from an overturned trailer. Food prices have risen by 100 per cent since Oga Tinubu became president.
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So, Naija is in trouble. In response to the myriad challenges facing the country, the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu are now set to lead a national prayer session. Organised in collaboration with both Christian and Muslim leaders, the event is intended to call for divine intervention amidst the ongoing crises. I am a Christian, and I truly believe in the power of prayer and the possibility of miracles—St. Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes, is my favourite saint for a reason. But I also believe that faith without action is empty.
When leaders and those close to the seat of power pivot to prayer alone, instead of pursuing concrete, practical solutions, it signals a lack of commitment to real change. Prayer is essential, yes, but it is not a substitute for effective governance.
To genuinely address the challenges we face, we need more than solemn gatherings and appeals to faith; we need policies that provide security, economic stability, and real hope for a better future. It makes a mockery of whatever faith you purport to have, as Muslims or as Christians, to gaslight citizens into believing that you are working for them by calling or spearheading national prayers.
I don’t know who advises Mrs. Tinubu or if she listens to anyone, but abeg, tell her that if she really means well, she should use her platform and influence to take action beyond the prayer sessions. Let her use it to advocate for policies and partnerships that address the issues affecting every day Nigerians. Although, having said that, it is perhaps the case that poor Mrs. Tinubu, surrounded as she is by opulence and sycophants, has no idea how bad things are.
We all know that privilege can be terribly blinding. How else does one explain the fact of Madam First Lady proposing a “Unity Fabric” for all Nigerians to foster unity—because we know that all our problems would be solved by wearing and co. like a newly married couple at their Thanksgiving Mass—or her asking Nigerian women to alleviate food insecurity by growing vegetables in their backyards.
This is a woman who obviously has no idea that having a vegetable garden like she does is a luxury. And there’s no way that she believes that women growing veggies in their backyards is really what is needed for the nation to solve its food crisis.
So while the national prayer session may be well-intentioned, it feels like more of the same – Madam Tinubu proposing “solutions” that do not shift the needle at all. Worse, it seems to me to be simply virtue signalling a deeply religious country. If Mrs. Tinubu genuinely wants to help, let her begin by asking her husband to remove his oppressive foot from the neck of Nigerians. He has pressed us long enough.
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