With Tony Okoroji
OMG! DECEMBER is here! Ordinarily, December should be the month of happiness, the month of celebrations.
It used to be the month to count one’s blessings and give glory to the Almighty.
December is the month when the whole world goes on leave and celebrates Christmas.
Usually, the quarreling and bickering of the world are put on hold.
Beautiful carols everywhere! Messages of goodwill and exchange of gifts!
How are the traumatized people of Nigeria going to celebrate this December? Customarily in December, every member of the family gets new clothes for Christmas.
Even the poorest of families will cook ‘Uncle Ben’s’ rice served with some chicken stew.
This December, will there be the ‘chaaa!-chaaa!’ sound and delicious aroma of frying onions in hot oil?
In this T-Pain economy?! It used to be the tradition that many thousands of bags of rice exchanged hands in December.
Many organizations gave away this favorite food item to their staff, valued customers and well-wishers.
Pray, how easy is it to give away a bag of rice this season, now that the cost of a bag of rice is money that would have built a small bungalow not long ago?
I am getting much more phone calls than usual this December. Everybody is calling to greet me.
Though the callers do not explicitly say so, I know that a lot of the calls are subtle reminders that ‘family support’ is required and expected this season.
How do I deal with it? I have tried to add two and two but it never ends up as four!
Will there be the usual Exodus, movement of Jah people, this December? Will there be ‘go-slow’ on the two Niger bridges as the West pours into the East and just before New Year, the East returns to the West?
How does that happen when the cost of filling your fuel tank is much more than the money you paid to buy your car, not long ago? Do you travel by road or by air… with the obscene air fares?
What of the launching of development funds and family meetings that take place at Christmas time? Are we now going to do them by WhatsApp video or by Zoom?
Please, tell me: will unknown gunmen go on leave this December?
Will Boko Haram declare a time out?
Will the kidnappers surprise everyone with the realization that December is a very wrong month to kidnap anyone?
Will IPOB relax the Monday “sit at home” this December, so my people can breathe?
December has always been a special month for me. Oh, did I tell you that my birthday is celebrated on December 22, Madam’s is on December 24 and that my family’s December celebrations began on December 4 when Stephanie, my youngest daughter, was born?
My closest aides, Abey and Mama Gbenga, who have more or less become members of my extended family, have as their first names, Abiodun.
That tells you that they are Christmas children and celebrate their birthdays in December too.
Sadly, this December, I will not be able to call my dear friend, Prof. Egerton Uvieghara and wish him Merry Christmas. I will not be able to call the great Guitar Boy and Joromi King, Prof. Sir Victor Uwaifo and share a joke with him.
Can you imagine that these two big professor friends of mine who gave me unbelievable kindness and moral support and both of whose surnames start with a big ‘U’, conspired and flew away on the same very day, August 28, 2021?
Wow! this December, I will not be able to call my dear friend, John Udegbunam, the Honourable Eweson, seven persons in one! We will not exchange pleasantry like we have done in the past.
There is one December I will not forget in a long time. It was on December 7, 2017, that some of my colleagues on the COSON Board whom I had hitherto regarded as my buddies and close friends decided to foist a rebellion on me.
The guys whom I used to joke and laugh with suddenly were not laughing. Without warning and with what appeared to me to be blood shot eyes, they announced that they wanted me out as Chairman of COSON with immediate effect! If we were in the military, I probably would have been shot dead. It was a coup!
For as long as I live, I will never forget December 19, 2017 when COSON members after 12 days of my absence ushered me back into COSON House with thunderous ovation and overwhelming kindness. Of course, I cried.
I cried in public because not many people live to witness what I experienced: such profound recognition and appreciation of the sacrifice one has made and the work one has done.
I will never forget members of COSON openly showing appreciation that I did not abuse the privilege given to me to build one house, not to talk of an estate with 753 duplexes!
By the grace of the Almighty, this December, the COSON family from across the country will gather at our Annual General Meeting.
We will come together, meet ourselves, mingle, sing, dance, enjoy some delicacies, make merry, thank God and share royalties, as we have done for several years.
This December, I send felicitations to all my friends and family members.
I particularly thank the thousands of members of the COSON family and my brothers and sisters on the Board who have shown me great camaraderie and the determination to make tomorrow better than yesterday. I thank our hard-working management. and staff.
I thank our lawyers across the country and the judges whose decisions have saved us from being swallowed by the wickedness and avarice of the Nigerian nation.
I also thank my dedicated staff at TOPS Digital who are there for me all the time.
I pray that each of us will have a December that will be remembered with joy in our hearts.
Warmest wishes to all of you who have joined me every week to partake in Saturday Breakfast.
See you next week.
