Yuletide: A Christmas Celebration Being Redefined by Hardship

• We used to be happy December was approaching but now, no money for people to look fine – Hair Stylist
• Chicken that sold for N4,500 last Christmas now N20,000, many poultries have closed down – Poultry farmer
• How to celebrate Christmas without regrets – Cleric

For a number of Nigerians, the celebration of Christmas is incomplete without the materialism and consumerism that often accompany it. With reports pointing to hardship occasioned by rocketing inflation, Nigerians are adjusting to the fading colours of Christmas. LADESOPE LADELOKUN reports

Traditionally, the Christmas season comes with a flurry of activities. The chains of events tied to Christmas, for many, are what make the season complete.
While companies, churches, families, and schools decorate with lights, trees, and ornaments to announce the arrival of the season, many savour the opportunity the season provides, get a momentary break from the hustling and bustling in the cities, and bond with extended families in the hinterlands.
Also, pilgrimages to camps of various Christian denominations are a conspicuous feature that define the Yuletide. However, with lamentations about increasing fuel price, rocketing inflation, hunger , and poverty, Christmas celebration, some say, is being redefined as it is deemed to be fast losing its colours.

No convention this year
For a number of Celestial Church faithful, Christmas is incomplete without being present at the annual convention at Imeko, Ogun State. Celestial Church members across the world, Sunday Telegraph gathered, are expected to converge on Imeko City for the Christmas Eve and the Christmas Day Services. But in separate interviews with Sunday Telegraph, some members expressed unwillingness to observe this year’s holy pilgrimage, citing economic reasons. Temitope Akeju said: ” On Sunday, it was announced that the amount to pay per head to observe this year’s holy pilgrimage was N30,000. People roared in protest on hearing it. This compelled the announcer to start explaining to the protesting congregation that inflation in the country caused it. But that didn’t stop the murmour. Last year, we paid only N12,000. Now, we’re paying N30,000. You can see the difference. Many are already discouraged. I can’t afford that amount on the fare alone.”
Another member of the church, Tola Adedeji, said he would be left broke for the rest of December and January should he attend the annual convention.
“Every year, I go to Imeko with my wife and children. This year is different. If I must go this year, there are two options for me. It’s either I go alone or I go with my family. If I go with my family, it will cost N130,000 to fuel my car. The other option is for me to stay back. The latter is the better option for me. I will pray in my house. When I come back, we are still going to eat. My rent expires this December. Schools will resume in January. Except I want to kill myself, it can’t work.”

A different kettle of fish for the Igbo
Despite affirming that a great number of people from his part of the country (South East) place a high premium on travelling to their home state during Yuletide, Chidi Okere expressed his resolve to stay back in Lagos. While travelling to and fro Okija, his town in Anambra would cost him N100,000, he said he would need more than double of that to leave Lagos.
“I don’t have money to travel. Going alone is N50,000 to Okija(Anambra) . We can talk on video call. I’m not going to anywhere this December. I’ll be sleeping in my house. If it’s garri I can get, I will eat it. I don’t have money to celebrate Christmas. I won’t kill myself because I want to travel. Will I not come back to Lagos again? I travel every year but this year, I can’t go. If I’m to travel, I will budget about N400,000. If I go, I will buy one bag of rice to give to my people; if I’m there, I will buy fuel for the generator. I will buy clothes for my mother, my sister and others. I’m staying here, except a miracle happens.”
Unlike Okere, Chijioke Iro is determined to travel regardless of the lamentations about economic challenges, stating that they are not new.
“I will travel. I have my car. It’s not my business if fuel price is high. I’ve planned to travel; I must travel. I can go through a commercial bus. All our brothers in Europe and America will come home if they want to come. If I don’t use my car, I will board a commercial vehicle. I don’t wait for the government for anything. Nobody serious about travelling will complain about fuel. You have the whole year to prepare. Since I was born, people have been complaining about government. During Buhari’s time, we complained. During Jonathan’s time, we complained. Even in the 1980s, when Buhari took over, there was austerity measure. The price of garri rose from N1 to N150. People said Nigeria was doomed. ”

It’s a dull season. Customers turning back due to low budget -Boutique owners
At her boutique on Awolowo Way , Ikeja, Lagos, Adaeze Uba, said the fall in the value of the Naira to Dollar had shrunk her customer base, particularly during the Yuletide. She added that, unlike what obtained before, no other evidence points to low sales during this festive period like her availability to grant an interview.
“Things are very hard. This is a period people normally have their weddings. For those of us that sell suits, if you entered here three years ago, I would not even have time to grant you an interview. This month, I don’t think two or three people have bought suits. Last three years, you could get a suit for N20,000 but the same suit goes for N40,000 to N50,000 now. The designer ones were N30,000. Today , you buy them for N70,000. So, you can see why people would stay back,” she explained.
Commenting, another boutique owner on the same road, Frank Udi, told Sunday Telegraph that customers often budget lower than the real cost of clothes they intend to buy because of the astronomical rise in price, forcing them to turn back.
“Customers are not coming like before. The difference is huge. Prices of goods have gone so high that customers who come with a budget of N10,000, for instance, find out that what they actually need is N50,000 after getting to this place. This is not good. The economy is affecting everything. The government must save this country before it collapses. Three customers have come to me today. They couldn’t buy anything because the increment in the prices is more than what they expected.”

We used to be happy December was approaching but no money for people to look fine now – Hair Stylist
For Mujidat Balogun and her colleagues opposite Under Bridge in the Ikeja area of Lagos, it is a struggle to get customers. According to them, more priority is now placed on food than hair styling.
She explained: “No money for people to look fine. It’s affecting business. People place wigs on their heads for months to avoid making their hair. If you were here earlier, you would have seen us fighting ourselves over a customer. If business is booming here, would that happen? I come from Ota, near AIT, to this place to work. I spend over N3,000 to get here and go back. Will I come here and go empty-handed? It’s what customers are willing to pay we just accept. Attachment is very expensive now. A good one is about N6,000, and one is hardly enough. Sometimes we use three. That’s about N18,000. If you spend N18,000 on attachment, how much will you now pay me? By this time, if it were before, you would see people flooding this place. People from abroad would come. In fact, we were always happy whenever December was approaching because those of us who were owing would be certain that we would clear our debts. We would bill customers N50,000, N100,000. They tell us not to worry. But people no longer worry about their hair. They just want to get money to buy food.”
Similarly, another stylist, Balkis Atolagbe, said:”This country is hard. We are hungry. Please beg baba for us. Everything we do, sell is affected by fuel price. Once fuel is high, the price of goods will remain high. The style most people do now is weaving, which is N500. Some of us spend as much as N2,000 to get here. Feeding is not part of it . Is it N500 paid for weaving our children will live on? Attachment is very expensive now. But there is the one we call “waste/Tokunbo”. It costs N3,000. Those who don’t mind buy it instead of the one sold for N6,000. Still, not many people buy the cheaper one. More people go for weaving instead.”

Chicken that sold for N4,500 before is now N20,000… many poultries have shut down – Poultry farmer
Reacting to the soaring prices of chicken, a poultry farmer, Steven Omosehin, said the poultry could not be isolated from the economic challenges bedeviling Nigeria.
Omosehin said: “What affects every other industry affects the poultry industry. Everyone knows that feeds are very expensive now. So many poultries have closed down. The ones that have not closed down are just in it to keep body and soul together. It is not that they are making huge profits. Any small loss has a huge negative impact on the farm. Birds will be very expensive this Christmas/ New Year season. But those who will buy will buy.
“For example, birds that used to cost about N4,000 to N4,500 will now be sold for N15,000 to N20,000. The purchasing power of people has drastically reduced. It’s bound to affect sales. I don’t think people have so much money now. When Christmas and New Year celebrations are over, parents will be faced with the challenge of school fees. So, ideally, parents will be careful about spending to make sure they meet the school fees needs of their children and other expenses in January.”
Baring his mind on the hue and cry about the rocketing price of chicken, a poultry owner and the Chief Executive Officer of Greenfield Nigeria Limited, Mr Gabriel Enoch, explained that a number of factors were responsible for the expensive price of chicken. According to him, a great number of companies in Nigeria that import foreign feeds into the country for sale are in difficulty over the fallen value of the Naira to the Dollar. He said that would definitely have an impact on the prices of chicken.
He added: “You know electricity is not stable in Nigeria. We need regular supply of it to produce heat. In the absence of it, the only alternative is to buy petrol to power our generators. Mark you, most of the raw materials are not produced in Nigeria here. We don’t rely on the Corn from Nigeria alone. We get from Niger Republic and other neighbouring countries. It’s the same story for Wheat. We import a huge chunk of it. We don’t produce enough Corn; we don’t produce enough Groundnut; we don’t produce enough Wheat. So, the prices of chicken is a reflection of our economic situations. Nigerians should be fair to us.”

Vehicles everywhere, passengers not coming – Park Driver
At the Ojota Motor Park in Lagos, drivers interviewed by Sunday Telegraph lamented how the cost of fuel was taking its toll on their businesses. Azeez Afolabi plies the Lagos/ Osogbo route.
He said: “We spend a lot on fuel. We just work to keep ourselves busy. If we consider what we spend on fuel, we would not work at all. But we have families to take care of. That’s why we still work. Fuel takes a huge chunk of our earnings. We need the fuel price to be brought down. It’s affecting how people travel. See how this place is filled with vehicles. Ordinarily, vehicles would have left but people are not coming because of high fares. To go to Osogbo now, we charge N9,200 . It was just N4,500 before. Right now, people no longer travel if it’s not very important.”
Meanwhile , at the Efex Motor Park, the ‘manager’ of the park, who declined to identify himself told Sunday Telegraph that,”Port Harcourt is N33,000, Bayelsa is N31,000. Fuel is expensive. The price of fuel last year and this year can’t be the same. Bayelsa was just N22,000 last year.”
Meanwhile, a passenger at the the Ojota park, enjoins Nigerians to look to God to crash the prices of goods and services.
“We came from Ilorin. It used to be N3,500. Now, we are paying N10,000. It is the fuel that is at the root of all of this. It is only God that can save us, not the government. The government cannot help us,”

Expect rise in foodstuff prices
Going by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) report,
Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose from 32.7 per cent in September 2024 to 33.88 per cent in October 2024.
The NBS attributed the rise in inflation to increased transportation costs and higher food prices.
It further added that food inflation rate in October 2024 was 39.16 per cent year-on-year compared to September 2024, when the inflation was 37.77 per cent.
The NBS noted that the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items: Guinea Corn, Rice, Maize grains, Beans, Yam, and Cassava tubers.
Despite rising food inflation and its effects, foodstuff transporters, under the aegis of Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN), have warned of a further surge in food prices in December.
In a recent interview with a national newspaper ( not Sunday Telegraph) the National President of AUFCDN, Mohammed Tahir, lamented the rising costs of petrol and diesel, combined with daily extortion and double taxation on federal highways.
“Each trailer-load of Rice, Beans, Corn and other commodities from Sokoto to Port Harcourt costs N2.25 million. The same amount is spent to transport goods to other parts of the South, ” he said.
According to him, the cost of food will skyrocket as the Christmas season approaches, which will worsen the plight of Nigerians battling hardship .

How to celebrate Christmas without regrets – Cleric
Speaking on the need to celebrate in moderation, Pastor Michael Ayotunde Somoye of the Miracle Treasures of Heaven Bible Church, Ayobo, Lagos , said there was a need for people to spend within their income to avoid sorry tales later
“Hardship in some areas is not a general language for everyone. But my advice is, don’t borrow to avoid sorrow. Don’t go for anything that is more than your income . If you want to live long , you must be content. What you have, you spend. Don’t go for anything that is more than your income. It is the hand of the rat that the rat uses to rub its face. If the rat borrows the hand of an elephant, that face will be disfigured. Cut your coat according to the cloth you have . If you cannot sow a trouser, sow a knicker. It is just to cover up. Don’t say because someone is killing a fowl , someone is killing a ram, you also want to do the same. That will be a huge mistake that can lead to early grave.
“You don’t need to overstretch yourself. You don’t need to compare yourself to anyone. In January now, those who are paying school fees will pay school fees. So, if you spend all the money you have on festivities, it will lead to regrets. Christmas is once a year. Another one will come. I told them in my church that if they borrow, they are gone. If you cannot buy chicken, go for shrimps. It is more proteinous. It’s just for you to make sure you’re making yourself happy. You cannot make yourself happy when you are going to borrow money. It’s madness. Let the whole world know the way you are.”
He added: “My BP has never shot up. I still maintain my BP, no sickness, nothing because I don’t appear before my time. If you appear before your time, you will disappear before your time. So, why do you want to appear before your time? Wait for your time. The Lord will give you what you want…Go and dance before the Lord.”
Somoye urged Christians to appreciate God for the gift of life , and seek a fresh grace to be alive next year.