2016 had blood on its hands: So what?

Everyone – including the incurable optimist – has a boiling point: The moment of sacrificing positivity on the altar of reality. 2016 was one of such timelines. The year of astounding human positives was tainted, if not stained, by mountains of negatives upon negatives. Yes, 2016 saw among others: Successful separation of US twins conjoined at the head; Cambodia peace treaty; return of a tiny minority of Chibok girls; signs of Africa maturing politically (Ghana).
But no, just as these progress were being made, 2016 in a clear case of leading a double life, was busy giving birth to inhumanities and catastrophes: Hate trumped love (a la Brexit and US presidential election); televised racial/police killings, the sour fruits of unprecedented primitive gun violence in the so-called Free World; Syria senselessness got out of hand (remember the bloodied face of little Omran Daqneesh?); The Gambia Yahya Jammeh surprisingly lost an election, and in quick succession became born again then a backslider, as if to confirm that Africa will always be Africa; Nigeria experienced excruciating hardship plus religious, ritual and communal ‘Cold Genocides’ (Shiites, Southern Kaduna, Herdsmen, Agatu et al).
2016 was not it. No matter how liberal, a murderer is a murderer. 2016 was a murderer; it had blood on its hands: monumental natural and man-made disasters across the globe; Russian ambassador to Turkey killed like a rat by a gunman live on television; Germany, France and other fingers bitten by some of the same refugees they were feeding. 2016 was the blood-thirstiest year in modern history. Every continent, race, gender, religion, everyone felt its sting.
Yet, when I instigated an online research penultimate Monday to find out the particular mental picture Nigerians have of the year, my Facebook friends painted recollections that suggest they spent those twelve months in Jupiter. Not one person mentioned the bloodletting that the year allowed. Is there something wrong with us? Or, am I unnecessarily alarmist, and uncharitable to the year? What’s your own memory of 2016?
Chukwu Agwu: Donald Trump! How can one forget the moment? And the tears in Hillary’s eyes, as she took a final bow!
Nsisong Akpakan: Death of Muhammad Ali. His ‘I must be the greatest’ line after defeating Sony Liston still plays in my head. What a man!
Joseph Eyo: Introducing the intriguing and infamous budget padding into Nigeria’s political lexicon.
David Bassey: Supreme Court victory of Cross River State Gov. Ben Ayade.
Chrissy Michael: How Africans continued to vote out underperforming leaders: Presidential victory of Nana Akufo Addo in Ghana after two failed attempts.
Aniefiok Essien: Leicester winning English Premier League proved to the world that money, big names, experience, connections don’t matter all the time. That, sometimes, inexperience can win.
Member Onwe:  ‘Change’ came to Nigeria for real. Cost of living had never been so high. Never!
Idy James: Chelsea thrashing Manchester United 4-0.
Menyeneowo Solomon: 10th of December deadly collapse of Reigners’ Bible Church in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Nyong Ekwere: Rivers State House of Assembly passing 2017 state budget in a record 48 hours after presentation by Gov. Wike.
Carring Etinyene Edem: Trump’s victory in the US remains a big shock to me.
Ajani Olatunde Olaoluwa: God answered my three prayers at the point of giving up very late in the year.
Anthony Gregory: The power of God. His grace was available all the way.
Benard Abah: I can never forget Justice Okon Abang and his judgments.
A. N. Robert, JP: Constantly-increasing prices of even food items!
The inherent insensitive insularity might be a survivalist stratagem to help with our sanity, but it also reveals that the world had long deleted the memory of lovelorn refugees, who drowned, running from poverty, war and leadership-streptococci. We so soon forgot about the bodies of refugee babies washed up on the shores of Turkey and Libya. Ditto the mindlessness of Boko Haram and its allied forces (ISIS and Al-Shabaab). Clearly, all of that means nothing to us.
Arguing that fifteen people cannot speak for a 200 million-strong population will be unconvincing; because we know by the way things work in this country that the fifteen spoke the minds of the millions. Our twin ailments of endemic nonchalance and dwarfish national memory would only ensure the masses concur or acquiesce via silence. That’s why the same ‘recidivists’, who have held us to ransom for decades continue to remain in circulation at the top; their ‘chronic crimes’ written off by our citizenship memory loss and docility. In 2016, this gave them the audacity to start sweet-talking us about 2019!
It’s a troubling development, overall. Pretending that evil didn’t happen might be spiritual smartness but it also could be a health disorder. Are Nigerians suffering from a stress-induced disease? Did the untold hardship entrenched by 2016 exacerbate our mental ruination? Are we suppressing or hiding a condition? Can this be reason for the alarming anger, bitterness and hate that ply our roads and inhabit our communities?
If we need medical, social and spiritual deliverance; now is the opportune time to do the needful so that, in a month or two, we would have hit the sky flying. Our 2017 and future must be different, better and peaceful. God bless Nigeria!