© Numero Unoma
You know, I often wonder how all these world and international days are set. Some of them have stories behind them, but many seem randomly placed on the calendar, often without any thought as to whether there might be a conflict of interest, or maybe just a potential to offend.
This week is rather like one of those ready-to-bake cake mix products that says “just add water” on the package. Yes, this week, ‘just add 2022’
For our ready-mix of ingredients, we’ve got:
World Mental Health Day (10 October) International Day of the Girl Child (11 October) International Day for Disaster Reduction (13 October) International Day of Rural Women (15 October) World Food Day (16 October)
It almost feels as though the international and world days are taunting us. Okayyyy, let’s look at the individual ingredients of our week in no particular order.
Mental health issues worldwide are at an all-time high, well at least those on record. The jury’s out as to whether Covid isolation caused mental health incidence to rise, or merely brought out of the shadows what had already been brewing quietly behind the scenes. The theme for 2022 is a bit of a mouthful, not to mention a rather tall order: “Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority” Pardon my cynicism, but I’ll believe that when I see it. Why are we always touting themes, mouthing mantras and shouting slogans, but seldom actually doing deeds? It’s all just a bunch of eye service and lip service if you ask me. Just because in 2027 some market woman in Sandgrouse will be wearing the 2022 slogan on her Okrika T-shirt doesn’t mean that we actually even managed to make a dent on global mental health and wellbeing, let alone prioritised it this year.
I heard that one young University of Benin lecturer died by suicide after the ASUU strike drove him to desperation. He said he didn’t know what else to do, he had asked for help from friends and family, but had run out of options. As it happens, the friends and family then put their hands in their pockets after he was gone, and sent financial aid to his widow and children, so effectively the young man’s plan had worked. I blame the government for that man’s mental health, and for the mental health of so many Nigerians who would ordinarily be normally functioning humans, just getting on with life. But the unnecessary, and so very unjust hardships of life in Nigeria today, especially when juxtaposed with the opulent life-styles of the 1%, as well as their brazen impunity, are enough to drive the strongest of us mad. Mad angry, and mad crazy too. (keep scrolling) >>>>
The disaster of death by suicide is one that could be easily reduced if government would just do what government is supposed to do. Take care of the territory, the economy and the people of Nigeria. Too many disastrous deaths of all sorts are occurring needlessly in Nigeria today. Taking care of the territory is not just about protecting us from Boko Haram et al. It is also about having adequate measures in place to monitor, predict and mitigate things like the floods in Lokoja, which have had lorry drivers spending a week in transit, and which have had hundreds queuing for fuel in the federal capital, and most lament-worthy of all, which have also had over 1000 homes submerged, with no coherent plan for how to rescue, relocate or relieve the victims. Taking care of territory, economy and people also means building and maintaining road networks.
When public funds that are budgeted for roads, reforestation, drainage systems and other environmental interventions are misappropriated, then you get situations like Lokoja. When the money does not even make it into the state coffers because it is ripped off at sea, then what chance does the country have of averting ANY disaster you could imagine or name?
Eight years after the Chibok girls went viral across the globe, apparently two more of the girls were “found’ by the Nigerian army. Not rescued o. Found. The other thing they found was that one of them had a child and the other had two children! What a disaster for these girl children who once probably dreamt of going to university to become a doctor or a writer, and one day fall in love, get married and have a family with whom they would travel abroad as tourists, to see the sights of the world out there. What a disaster for the rural women who had to live with the end result that their daughters were gone, and that was that. What a disaster that the girl children and their mothers have for 8 years suffered the mental anguish of the facts of this situation. What a disaster that they will probably never have normal mental health again as a result of a disaster that could have been prevented.
I lose sleep because I am so hurt and so very angry, and that is not at all good for my mental health. Which has me wondering if all this chaos, pain and destruction the 1% are causing has any effect at all on their own mental health. Rural women who go out to farm food for their communities and the country at large are regularly slaughtered by bandits that know there will be no repercussion from the government, except to disarm local men and thereby disable them from taking the safety of their women and girl children (and boy children too, naturally) into their own hands. What a blasted disaster!
Meanwhile, food prices continue to skyrocket as supply fails to meet demand, with no end in sight. A lack of food security is in and of itself disastrous. Even the 1% are feeling the rise in prices, but they have enough of a buffer to absorb the inflation, so why should they care about anybody else? Besides, their doctors have been telling them for years now that they need to lose weight before their BP, diabetes or heart should kill them. That is the only death by disaster they need fear, even as the rest of us shrink in fear of one of the many terrible variables that could knock at our door on any day of the week.
The things we are seeing on social media make it impossible for plausibly denying the culpability of those in charge for the atrocities and disasters incessantly plaguing and littering Nigeria currently. Never before has it been quite this bad. Never before was the population bigger or less educated. Never before were ancestral homelands more dangerous for indigenes, never before has the Naira fallen lower, never before have we had less electricity, never before has there been more theft of our crude oil, never before have there been more kidnappings, never before has there been a longer ASUU strike, never before have there been so many suicides, never before has it been so difficult to travel on a Nigerian passport, never before has morale been lower than it is today. And I could go on, but you get the picture.
Hopelessness and catastrophic disaster everywhere you turn. How do you prevent a disaster when the government is the disaster?
Maybe we should just bury our heads in the sand and celebrate Werey Nation Day on October 10, followed by Girls Are Only Good In The Other Room Day on 11 October. What’s next on our list this week, again? Oh that’s right, disaster reduction. I guess if we allow a certain amount of people to be killed by Boko Haram, some more by floods, then we let others die of hunger, in that way we could reduce the disaster of death by suicide, because there will be less people to commit it, right? Rural Women could be given concessions on suicide if they manage to dodge Boko Haram and the rest of the Banditos. Last but not least, for World Food Day, given the price of groceries at the moment, this year let us celebrate food for thought. I encourage you to keep reading ICYDK, because at least it might distract you from the hunger pangs. Worst case scenario if you eat your meal as you read, you might not notice the lack of groundnuts in your garri this year. They say a man who soaks garri at home and goes out and buys shawarma for his girlfriend is mad. I wish y’all Bon App. Issokay, I don’t need to join you. Chop and clean mouth.