Christmas: One Celebration, Several Challenges

Christmas is no doubt one of the biggest holidays in the world. Celebrated in virtually all continents of the world, December 25, when the holiday is marked, is a period for merry making across cultures, languages and nations.

Christmas has its origin with the birth of Jesus Christ. Although there is some controversy within Christian faith over the veracity of December 25 being the actual date of birth of Jesus Christ, nothing has yet taken the shine off the celebration worldwide. It still remains the period to take a long vacation or close business for the year.
Nigerian Tribune and GRAPHITTI NEWS report:

Exploitative and prohibitive costs in the season of goodwill

For some businesses, Christmas is always the period looked forward to bring in the boom in sales and make up for the long lull in times preceding Yuletide.

The trend in Nigeria is the notorious increase in prices of all goods and services especially foodstuffs. The culture in foreign countries where you have prices slashed and/or deeply discounted does not exist in these parts. Rather the exploitative tendencies in the Nigerian system are exacerbated.

In some foreign countries in Europe and the Americas for instance the period preceding Christmas is accompanied by business of all variety practice the unwritten agreement to hold sales/bonanzas. And this makes economic sense: this boost sales, increase inventory turnover and profits. Nigeria sees no sense in this sound economic principle rather even old stock is sold at arbitrary and inflated prices. Nigerian businesses do not appear to know the meaning of phrase goodwill to all men. The spirit of greed and avarice seem to take grip of senses and people loose compassion for other men. Rapacious behaviour becomes norm.

Fuel

The pattern noticed over the years especially during the Babangida and Yar’Adua administrations was that year end more often than not marked a period of fuel scarcity. The fact that movement peaks this period only means that this commodity becomes an item in high demand. The attendant fuel scarcity witnessed in times past only made movement in Yuletide a truly Herculean task. One will also not forget in a hurry the New Year gift of 2012 when subsidy was removed and transport fares subsequently multiplied three-fold and four-fold leaving millions of Nigerians stranded in their hometowns. Nigerians have since adjusted to the new price regime, and thankfully no shocks have so far been experienced in price adjustments and recent agitations among unions in the oil industry have been contained such that there is currently availability of fuel at gas stations.

Naira devaluation

The past one year has seen retail shopping thrive in cities across the country. Malls of all sorts have sprung up to the delight of several Nigerians who have long desired a return of the the days of Kingsway shopping and the advent of convenience shopping.

However, towards the end of the year, CBN came out with its infamous announcement of the devaluation of the naira that has been roundly rued in several quarters. An economist, Henry Boyo, described in a recent report in the media the eight per cent devaluation of the naira as “a big mistake”. He said the policy shift remained a wrong concept that will persist because the CBN has learnt nothing from history. He said the devaluation will even move to 20 per cent as the black market continues to outstrip the official rate.

He said Nigeria has learnt nothing from what happened to the Ghanaian and Zimbabwean currencies. “I see the naira being devalued by 20 per cent as time progresses. I have repeatedly said that mopping up the naira to achieve exchange rate stability is wrong. The CBN substitution of the naira allocations for dollar should be stopped. Allocations should be divided based on dollar certificates. The exchange rate for the naira will continue to fall,” he said.

This effect on the exchange rate means that the prices of several imported consumer goods especially electronics will not drop as expected.

Electronics are not the only goods affected. Yuletide spending also includes expenditure on finishing building projects. Cost of house fittings and other finishing materials have been adversely affected by the naira devaluation, such that not a few Nigerians have had to grit their teeth in their effort to complete their building projects this period as they have had to deal with costs previously not budgeted for.

2015 elections and security

A survey conducted by NOIPolls has revealed that about 86 per cent of Nigerians are optimistic that the environment in which they would be spending the holidays would be “peaceful and secure.”

Inspector-General of Police, Mr Suleiman Abba, in a statement issued by the Force Spokesman, Mr Emmanuel Ojukwu, in Abuja, ordered a nationwide deployment of police strike units for a water-tight security throughout the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

The statement however added: “that the larger share of Nigerians, about 51 per cent will be staying at home to relax during the end of the year festive period, while a considerable proportion of about 29 per cent will be travelling outside their work stations to spend the yuletide with their loved ones,” possibly indicating that fears of insecurity are still rife especially with the approaching elections, hence the decision of most Nigerians to stay home during the celebrations. Memories of the Madalla Christmas bombing still linger in the minds of many Nigerians especially those affected.