Written By: Gab Okpalaeze

Christmas is a period of enjoyment. It heralds a sense of fulfillment, contentment and tosses around a spirit of brotherliness, sharing and lightening the burdens. Just like the biblical John the Baptist, who foretold the coming of the Messiah, it is the time of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation. Make the way of the Lord straight, level the hill tops and fill up the plains.

The essence of Christ coming is for man to have life and have it abundantly. However, the events of the experiences of the past two decades or so and recent past appear to be in breach of the Lord’s injunctions. Not when transporters, traders, and even the men of the underworld choose the time of the birth of Christ to unleash hardships on people.

Christmas seasons in the nineties and much later would later pass for periods of man eat man, survival of the fittest, right is right and such negativities. This is because, at Christmas, farmers and middlemen choose to skyrocket prices of goods and other essential commodities, some with transporters who hike transport fares to the extent that most families find it difficult to travel for the Christmas holidays to bond with their kin.

In those days in Anambra state, those who beat the challenge of transport fares to embark on travels, most times, had tales of woes to tell as the poor condition of the roads, joined with other variables, resulted in high rate of road crashes. And those who came in from outside the state were targets of the men of the underworld, for, according to their warped reasoning, they had kidnap values.

These were the ugly spectacles before Governor Willie Obiano came on board about five years ago. But this Christmas holds glamour of hope for both rural and urban dwellers of Anambra state.  

A cursory peep show that Governor Obiano is not just seeing newer opinions for the tales of woes, but has reeled off a carefully planned and sustainable programme to enable Ndi Anambra enjoy the Christmas. Top among his plan of actions is the command give-out of a bag of rice each to public servants in the state and their public counterparts.

With thousands of Ndi Anambra in the workforce of the state, civil and public service, and yet thousands of others as retirees, it shows that not a small percentage of Anambra families have their food needs settled. The impact of this is that only a handful of families without a public servant or retiree will have to go to the market to buy rice. The direct and immediate consequence is that price of rice is cut down following the economic theory of the lower the demand, the cheaper the price.

As the people are benefitting from the price stabilization formula, Governor Obiano announced a free ride for all commuters within the state, using the government-owned transport sector, TRACAS, since the first of December till the fifth of January when the festival is gone for good. It has been galore since the commencement of this zero expenditure on transport. Again, the chain effect in society is that there will be a cautious downward pricing by transporters who have lost most travelers to the Akpokuedike’s month-long-free transportation across the state.

The mother of all measures by the present administration in making a stress free environment possible for Christmas is in the provision of adequate security. Recall that a first ever harvest of high-tech state of the art security infrastructure in any state of the federation was witnessed in Awka recently, where the Inspector-General of Police did not hide his ecstasy for the trail blazing by Governor Obiano.

With the deployment of security vehicles and intelligence gadgets to strategic parts of the state, joined with the ever glowing street lights, criminals have taken flight out of Anambra state. Given the plenitude of expression of interest by Ndi Anambra in the Diaspora, and others across the country, to return home for this Christmas, it is almost certain that it is going to be real Christmas celebration, where happiness, safety, and peace of mind will reign supreme.             

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