"There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life and death; He is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live."
--------Jean de La Bruyere

Tears and fear seal this discovery: In any society where usurping pundits and evil fashioners are plaudits pushers and rulers, pain precedes pain and sorrow succeeds sorrow. Life becomes a bliss belabored by fellows. Moral bane, a polyphonic poetry-portion dubiously demarcated by destroyables' decent indecency.

The tick-tock of celeritous time draws humanity closer to Christmas. In the whole world, the mood is that of joy and excitement. Parents and lovers purchase the best for objects of their hearts' interests and plan the enthronement of pleasing pleasure for their children and sweet-hearts. Christ's birth being a consummate symbol of moral rebirth and holy renaissance in universal cosmology which contemporary sociology has come to regard in absolute earnestness, even non-Christians join the Christians in principled commemoration and pleasurable commendation of that season's reason.

Even in countries whose cultural semantics abhors the implications of Christianity, the aura crosses their boarders to register rare feelings in the hearts of their different territories. So far, Christmas has been celebrated for more than two thousand times with countless societies and empires covering miles to satisfy, and moving pillars away from factors that could hurt their relatives, friends, and even enemies. What a sweet season Christmas moment is!

Here in Nigeria, we court misanthropy to beat the existing records! In this part of the world, we are determined to put up the most spectacular celebration. In the past, hunger was what we proudly placed on our people's tables. We neglected their cries and wailings to advance the best paupers at yuletides. Their parents, youths given juicy contracts by socio-economic frustration, militantly marched into churches and temples on Christmas eves, even mornings, to quarrel with their Creator for reducing their poverty quality. They expected the worst every time, for a Christmas befitting their Nation's promise of pains.

Children shed tears of fulfillment that their rags represented the best in the history of social sadness. Teachers and other toilers had happily returned home because their salaries and stipends were enslaved by the cruel majesty of their country's socio-political anvil. All wept for a dream come true, their Christmas occasions being an exceptional enchantment pain alone could sustain.

The rich who were patriotic enough had grown weary of life's comforts to enroll their lives in the wonders of wretchedness at Christmas. I too, with the assistance of caring relatives and dedicated friends who had refused the penetration of vile filths, had suffered in eerie series to continue the legacy of tears at Christmas. We all are great Nigerians who dare not rise above our leaders' deplorable agenda!

Christmas in the biggest African country? It is a constant reminder of remorseless pauperism the twenty-fifth of every December merely symbolizes, a repository of deep penury whose effects ingest hollow holiness, digest awful evil and egests great agony. This you will notice in our overwhelming jocundity, which is fecund enough to cover-up our weighty worries.

Nigerians are a happy people whose sadness serves a dangerous check on their unhappy happiness. Over time, our leaders have discovered, through series of researches in the devil's laboratory, and have wastefully employed and tenaciously maintained the relevance of hunger and distress in our collective welfare.

They would device policies, once in a while as a relieving amnesty given our booming standard of living, at times regularly, depending on the poisoning potentials of such, that Nigerians were unhappy for seven, eight, five or less years. In all, short-term suffering was common, but with long-term chaos that enhanced the depth of, and professionalism in the business of our grinding agony.

As great citizens educated enough by the ignorance of popular good, we sacrificed our all to make past Christ's births wonderful ones by parading the Nation with lies and weapons, in 'Christly' search for others' property the Lord must be in quick need of in our own apartments. We must assist our government preposterous policies by forcing millions of mutilating miseries into the hearts and psychology of Nigerians by killing and injuring them to be in legal possession of their belongings; so nice you know, ill-acquired money for finely built, moving dust-bins we call posh cars and cool countenance to impress our gullible people away at villages.

Our caring constitution also assisted our desire for a great Christmas since only elites are structurally empowered to survive and enjoy the economic romance of our numerous resources. The elites, our national light in moral darkness could survive on our behalf; yes, for the enduring security of darkness in all aspects of our national life.

At Christmas, we witnessed a glut in the rush of crimes, pains and ungodly circumstances the great grace of our immortal leaders fostered. Why not? We are the second largest importers of tears, according to the open ranking of Transparency International, a group most reasonable scholars have said is in itself starved of transparency. I quite agree with these decisive bards.

While no man, no Nation can be justified in unethical practices because others refuse to help, true transparency does not consist in ranking those you are not willing to salvage by the resultant crimes of your unholy refusal to help them. It is criminal to animadvert what you have not made any genuine attempt to correct. The truly transparent are people or groups who combine the twin sacrificial struggles of socio-political reforms with criticism. Oh, pardon my derailment, for it will not assist our sadness at Christmas!

If Jesus Christ were to physically visit the earth, no other country will win his heart than Nigeria which yearly destroys its citizens' mood and minds on his birthdays. American and European countries may be perfectly imperfect; their social sins are not spiritually filthy enough to make a whole Jesus wish to land on their earths for any reason. So, you all can see that Nigeria is a real miasma, which Sosoliso plane sorrow only corroborates.

Our wise and godly leaders, knowing how important it is to maintain our championship in this mire and quagmire, had discovered less efficient facilities of social stress in the last two plane crashes---Ogun and Kaduna respectively, being nine and five weeks away from Christmas, in spite of the fact that one hundred and seventeen Nigerians {plus our own first lady, through an entirely unique punishment-importing moral eccentricity} had prevent ably died! We could no longer vividly view the indelible scars created in our hearts by the BellView plane crash. Arguably, it was necessary that that another plane crash was scheduled to occur by our leaders' deliberate refusal to redesign our flight policies .Are we not preparing for the celebration of Christ's birth?

And indeed, it did tragically occur! Tragedy, sorrow for our Nation at Christmas!Through this one, which tenth of December brought, our tragedy is fatter than fatness and losses tripled. We who have been proscribed from the consumption of joy and pleasure at Christmas can now bathe in our grieves and ease in our unease for a special celebration while other citizens eat and exchange fine words with, and pay fulfilled visitsto friends and relatives.

In this plane crash, more than sixty schoolchildren from a purely Christian school, Ignatius Loyola College, Port Harcourt, Eastern Nigeria all died. Mrs. Bimbo Odukoya, one of Nigeria's most flambouyant and morally resourceful Pastor also died. What befalls her widely viewed, truly educative television program, "Single And Married"? The Rivers State Commissioner for Education continued his job in the grave along with the students from his state. What better Christmas sorrow for a Nation than this? The schoolchildren?

Among them were Leaders, Writers, Lawyers, Engineers, Pastors, Doctors, etc. The tragedy is not in the sadness that fills their parents, relatives and friends' hearts forever, but in the great roles their Nation's resentment for their safety shall hinder them from playing in the nearest future. Others, also in the gone group will forever hurt our growth as a Nation. This tragedy is far-reaching! As Oyinye Oyedele's When Saints Are Gone thoughtfully and touchingly advises, we combine our loss with the duty to celebrate their lives and values.

In spite of the shock and sorrow, we rise to place the right plaudits upon their principles. But I plead that we include the prevention of more plane crashes in this immortalization bid. Oh! I apologize for getting too emotional here, lest I offend our leaders who approved of our new sadness by leaving undone, things that would have averted this incalculable loss.

The higher the victims' importance, the more tragic the plane crash. And since tragedy is specifically sought in our political beachcombers' agenda, for our Nation's development, the leaders too are invited to collectively board one of these utterly disreputable flying killers. Or better still, as soon as this sorrow is over, our blunder makers should approve the President's tour to Mr. Death's country where deadlier pacts could be quickly that will kill more efficiently than plain crashes. As we await these, we dishearteningly move on with our cross and roll in ashes that Saturn may someday influence this season.

greatmankind@hotmail.com

© December 2005 By Olawale Oyewumi
Afromerica staff writer

Brother Olawale Oyewumi will be keeping the Black community updated on Education And General World Development. Visit regularly for new information that could help you overcome and make the best of your everyday experiences.

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