By Richard Dirim Odu
Donald John Trump, the president of the United States of America, fired the first salvo to kickstart the Christmas joy for Nigeria. The POTUS had gone right to the far north of Nigeria, the very seat of the Caliphate, and audaciously excreted some bombs on the ISIS and ISWA fighters who had continued to terrorize Nigerians from their camps in the Sokoto outskirts.
Details of the operation were shrouded in the usual military secrecy. However, footage from the strike, right or wrong, showed carcasses of terrorists littered in the camp where these evil and unprovoked attacks were plotted and executed on hapless Nigerians. The footage dismissed sceptics who thought that Trump’s earlier warning to invade Nigeria and take out the terrorists working tirelessly to annihilate Christians and moderate Muslims was a ruse.
Rumours on January 1, this year, said that the home of Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, was destroyed on New Year eve by the US force in air strikes on three terrorists’ hideouts in Kaduna, the hotbed of killings and terror acts on predominantly Christian communities. True or not, the rumour signified popular feelings about the US campaign to end terrorism in Nigeria. The rumours remain unconfirmed by both the US and Nigerian authorities. Was it joyous as what we are hearing and clapping our hands involved the loss of human lives? Would it not have been better to capture these fighters alive and deradicalize them?
I can feel cynics making mouths behind my back at this remark. Of course, how could we feel pity for someone out on a suicide mission, one who believes it was better to die and go to heaven to enjoy some virgins? Had it been that no other lives were usually involved in these suicide attacks, no one would bother much. Indeed, someone who decides to be a pest gets a pesticide.
Another unpalatable tale was the road crash that claimed the lives of close associates of boxing champion Anthony Joshua who was holidaying in Nigeria, his country of origin. The good thing in the story was that our boxing hero was not consumed in the accident and is reportedly stable after undergoing some treatment in hospitals in Nigeria and the UK.
Goal!!! The shrills emanating from Morocco where the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament entered its knockout stage with the round of 16 matches currently in progress electrified the Christmas season and gave people a reason to rejoice or feel sad in victory or loss for favourite teams. Nigerians were on the winning side, having roundly defeated their opponents in the group stage of the 35th edition running from Dec. 21, 2025 to Jan 18, 2026, to top the Group C. Last Monday, Nigerians continued to smile when their Super Eagles team trashed Mozambique 4-0.
Again, on New Year’s eve, Nigeria’s political fine boy Peter Obi quelled the anxiety of his supporters and traducers alike when he threw his hat in the ring and declared eventually for the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a party housing opposition heavyweights, in preparation for the 2027 presidential contest. Anxieties are still high over Obi until the ADC primaries begin and end.
Obi’s entry into ADC sparked speculations and political permutations of different dimensions. Optimistic Obidients, who got tensed up as Obi almost was party-less, are already matching an Obi presidency with Aminu Tambuwal, or Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as vice in the ADC mix. We are yet to see this happen with maverick Atiku Abubakar looming large in the party and Rotimi Amaechi gazing menacingly. If the ADC adopts the zoning formula and retains the presidency in the south, Obi would need to contend with the horse trading that usually takes place in the primaries before the coast is clear for him, in view of his “give-no-shishi” policy.
Who knows? Obi could lose the ticket and so get edged out of the race. Perhaps, Atiku might grab it, to the distaste of jingoists of a southern presidency. Meanwhile, arch-Obidient, Prof. Pat Utomi, has said that Obi would automatically lose his support if he accepts anything short of the presidential ticket. So, said many in that camp. In other words, Obi has become so institutionalized that he can no longer take a decision on the political steps to take. Most probably, his entry into ADC must have been decreed by the Obidients. No other Nigerian politician is so very privileged. Thus, Obi becomes an object to envy.
The streak of politics shifts to Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, where a tug-of-war had persisted between Gov. Siminalaye Fubara of the state, and his predecessor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike over political control of the state. Tales from Christmas had it that Wike visited home where he declared that he would not allow anyone to “bury” him politically, that if Fubara is returned for a send term, he would be buried. Wow! Fear has crept in. Politicians, anyway, bury themselves politically by their actions.
The 40-year-old whiskey boozer, in his husky voice, spoke again about a secret agreement he had with Gov. Fubara before he became governor. “Agreement is agreement!” he had thundered. What agreement, anyway? As long as it remains unknown to the people, so shall that agreement be regarded as a nullity and inconsequential.
The minister pulled the television press crew that matter in Nigeria down to his home for a media chat during the Christmas holidays. What was more important to view than the ambiguity of his answers to questions was the air of opulence in his home where the interview took place. How very unconscionable our politicians can be to flaunt their luxurious life in front of millions of impoverished Nigerians! As we keep an eye on the chessboard, we wait for who would shout “checkmate!”
Then the big issue – the tax law that may have taken effect on New Year’s Day! Nigerians had been apprehensive of the law which ran into a tempest as it had a near success berthing at the appointed time. Eagle-eyed legislators had discovered discrepancies between the gazetted copy and the one passed into law by the National Assembly. A group had gone to court to stop the implementation of the law until the confusion was solved. But the court said it must go on. Court! Court? A Nigerian court? Isorait!
Meanwhile, analysts say the oil sector, the very hub of the economy, was exempt from the tax while the tax threshold that captured a certain level of income was lowered. In addition, the tax man, in the law, has been given a right to arrest any individual and prosecute without a police permit, giving a semblance of absolutism, impunity and totalitarianism. It won’t be surprising to find protests in various corners as this law takes off.
Taxes are effective and painless in countries where they are used for the benefit of the people. Not in Nigeria, where citizens provide security, water, electricity, education, housing and healthcare for themselves. Electricity, in particular, did not smile at my immediate community where I had gone to hide during this Christmas. Everyone wondered why the extended punishment until news filtered that the national grid had collapsed. Usual story! Where has the money saved from oil subsidy gone? What about the oil proceeds that soared at the approach of the Yuletide? Loans obtained in trillions are missing in the cooking pot of the people’s welfare and are found in presidential fleets of cars, planes and yachts, as well as National Assembly members’ luxury cars and homes. This tax, in all probability, will only fund the profligacy of an opulent ruling class. It is not for the people.
During this 2025 Christmas, as celebrants savoured the countless chicken and rice, and beer, actress and movie maker, Ini Edo appeared on the screen shedding tears profusely. Was she crying in a movie scene? Trust actors, they have that emotional fluid right at the tip of their eyelids. But, this time around, the famous actress was not faking. An unexpected had hit her and was going to burn through her purse and those of her co-producers of the new movie entitled A Very Dirty Christmas. The title suddenly came under a barrage of attacks from the flanks of a powerful and influential religious group, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). The movie, released late last year, is a holiday drama that centres around marital strife, infidelity and family tension during Christmas.
CAN saw the title as offensive to the adherents of the Christian faith that celebrate the festivity, which marked the birth of Jesus Christ, demanding that the title be changed. In fairness, the title did not say Christmas was dirty. The word Christmas, in the movie is only situational, the setting being during the Christmas, as one would say Black Sunday if something unsavoury occurs on that Sunday, without the connotation that Sunday is black.
Should we say that CAN officials were illiterate and couldn’t see it from that angle? Or that they had gone as fanatical as their Muslim counterparts? Now, Ini Edo is in tears over money that could slip off her hands over the controversy as the Censors Board, which had earlier approved the title, showed signs of capitulating under CAN influence. Chai!
Was this Christmas clean or dirty? Which ever way, it was clearly an impactful week.
Dr. Odu can be reached through [email protected] or SMS 07016722929.
