That declaration is neither a perception nor a hope. That declaration is the reality, that declaration is what it is. That declaration is what must be, no matter what happens. The year of our Lord 2022 has no choice but to be classically and sharply different from its immediate two shambolic predecessors.
So, 2020 was the year of COVID-19. Its successor was the year of death. Both connived to shake the world to its very foundations; 2020 pandemically strutted the globe, up and down, looking for whom to devour, slaughtered a frightening number in the process, forced and enforced a lockdown from which the world may never recover.
When 2021 showed up, it set out with bogus optimism. Because it soon proved to be more dangerous, more lethal. If you blame the humongous fatalities of 2020 on the pandemic, pray: what should take the fall for 2021? HIV/AIDS or malaria or Lassa fever; just what?
Clearly, death was responsible for all the unexpected deaths recorded last year. 2021 was therefore the year of death. Under its watch, the year before seemed only as child’s play. That is to say: 2021 made 2020 look like an apprentice in the shop run by a merchant of death.
The world over, not one person or family was untouched directly or indirectly by the impact of death 2021. It was so rampant or so ubiquitous that in no country would you find someone who did not lose someone or someone who knows someone who did that year. The way people died, those 12 months made death fashionable. Everywhere one turned, death had taken this or that person or there was one horrendous bad news or the other.
Naysayers, prophets of doom and sundry haters of God began to sell the gist that the world was coming to an end. To be fair, it looked more like so. There was too much death, too much bad news, too much violence, too much evil and, if you like, too much impunity; 2021 drove against traffic from start to finish and seemingly got away with it.
By the way, there are some who say 2021 was the best thing since ice cream. We thank God for them. Alas, all of them belong only among the tiniest of minorities: 2021 was like that, mean to an alarming majority, fair to an infinitesimal minority; we move!
The foregoing sums up my belief, and it is true, that 2022 is our year of rest. You could not have survived the excruciating burden that 2020 and 2021 offered, back to back, and not deserve the break or change of activity that rest is. In fact, let me tell you if you didn’t know: God has decreed it so. Our ever-loving father has intervened to lock out all the afflictions.
Even Satan who works full-time -stealing, killing and destroying- knows we need rest. The small man himself is tired, having worked overtime all of 2020 and 2021. So, you see, there’s no stopping 2022 as our year of rest. Go to the mountaintop and declare it and when you come down, ensure you believe and enjoy it.
2022 is our year of rest. Ignore those purveyors of doom. There shall be no death, there shall be no loss, there shall be no war, there shall be no lack, there shall be no deprivation in 2022. If these 12 months you hear of death or any of the aforementioned, know that it is for those who didn’t pay the price that the rest of us paid in 2020 and 2021.
This 2022 is our year of rest. Those of us who planted and planted and planted shall now harvest and harvest and harvest. Those of us who worked and worked and worked like an elephant but only ate like an ant shall now eat and eat and eat like an elephant while we work like an ant. Those of us who lost here and lost there and lost then shall now receive better replacements.
2022 is our year of rest. Those of us hitherto forsaken and hated so that no man went through us shall now become eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Those of us whose expectations were permanently cut off shall now have a table of honour set before us in the presence of our enemies. Those of us who seemed trapped forever in the devices of the crafty shall now see their disappointment since their hands shall no more be able to perform their enterprise.
Shout hallelujah, somebody! 2022 is our year of rest. Those of us who suffered like Joseph shall now emerge from the prison of hardship straight into the palace of enjoyment. Those of us who seemed bound in chains shall now be delivered from all them wicked and unreasonable men.
Praise the Lord, People of God. Those of us who have wallowed in situational and circumstantial and man-made manipulations shall now -suddenly- come into a new lease of life since God has changed those situations and those circumstances and their manipulators to favour us the same way Egyptians helplessly favoured Israelites on Exodus D-Day. Say ‘amen’ like thunder. Apologies, Global Ba’aba, Dr. Abel Damina!
2022 is our year of rest. Better start planning what you shall do with favour because it is coming like rain and flood. Better start planning what you shall do with ideas. Better start planning what you shall do with breakthroughs.
Better start planning what you shall do with connection. Better start planning what you shall do with peace. Better start planning what you shall do with supplies. Better start planning what you shall do with power.
In closing, let me ask you: what shall you do with 2022, our year of rest? As for my household and me, we shall accentuate our service to God and humanity. Rest is the most opportune time to serve God and mankind more. This is the word of the Lord!
God bless Nigeria!
Uyo is back to take its pride of place
Uyo is a peculiar, strategic city. At once, it is Akwa Ibom State capital as well as a local government area and its headquarters. I have a thing for the city, not just because I am Ibibio.
I just love how Uyo mixes its urbanness, its rurality and its heterogeneity but still remains itself. Uyo is a village-city combo. It is easy to see that those who have run the state have successively steadily worked to transform Uyo into a city but they all also seem to seek to allow its villageness side by side.
I shall write about this in detail someday. Meanwhile, today, I meant to salute Uyo political stakeholders for the didactic masterstroke they closed last year with. The unanimous choice of a former Honourable Commissioner, Prince Enobong Uwah, current chair of Uyo Capital City Development Authority (UCCDA) as Political Leader of Uyo, to replace the late fantastic gentleman, Sir Val Attah, Ph.D, is something every other political microcosms should emulate.
The way politics happens in our clime, where blessing is cursed, where excellence is despised, nobody would have expected star-studded Uyo to sit together and pick one of their first-eleven for this all-important role. And, see who they chose: someone we (outsiders who think we know too much about others inside) thought was their bitterest rival or the one they never liked. This deft move by Uyo is a wake-up call on all other political peoples to shun self in positioning for the future!
Happy New Year!
