From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
Christmas in Jalingo, Taraba State, was anything but exciting. A seamless blend of negative factors, ranging from unpaid salaries, fuel scarcity to high cost of eatables conspired to rob most Christians of the exciting joy of Christmas.
It was not surprising that streets were empty as a result of few visitations. There were even fewer Christmas decorations at homes, restaurants, shopping malls, pubs and fun spots with and far fewer Christmas trees at worship places and centres. The jingle bells rang in low tones while the carols lacked energy and strength.
A visit to some popular spots saw low turnout of celebrants, young and old. The usual beehives of activities and sparks of excitement were absent. The places were largely empty, with trickle of fun-seekers and family parties. The popular spots were largely deserted. They were bare of the kind of exotic fun and pleasure typical of them at Christmas.
A resident, Benson Adamu, said: “This Christmas is different. While Christian residents are happy at the anniversary of the birth of the Saviour, they lack the means to demonstrate their happiness or to exchange gifts as they used to do at Christmas.
“Taraba State is mostly populated by salary earners. There are hardly any serious private investments and companies in the state outside the government. This means that once the government cannot pay at the right time, the whole state is at standstill.
“Failure to pay salaries accounts for the poverty that attends celebrations.” It was gathered that November salaries only started hitting the workers’ accounts barely a week before Christmas: “Even at that, the same cannot be said of teachers, pensioners and employees of local government service in the state, who are yet to be paid their wages.”
Daniel Yunana, (not real name), is a civil servant. He lamented: “This was about one of the worst pre-Christmas experiences the people of the state had ever had. They had to battle with how to, at least, provide the basic necessities for the celebrations.
“Christmas has come and gone and I have not seen my November salary.
Can you imagine? I learnt that they have started paying others. Even if they pay me now, what will it buy? Prices of things have gone up.”
At such markets Mutum Daya in Karim Lamido Local Government, Wukari Yam Market in Wukari LG and Kasuwa Shanu in Gembu LG, the prices of eatables were not within the reach of the average majority.
Daily Sun discovered that a 50 kg of rice sold for almost N50,000, an average broiler went for between N8,000 and 10,000 while a cow sold for N400,000 and above. The hike was also witnessed in vegetables, beverages and apparels for both children and adults.
Madam Gladys Yahaya, who resides at Federal Government Girls College Road, Jalingo, said: “It is very frustrating when you go to the market these days.
“Tomato, pepper and onion of N5000 can hardly make you a pot of stew.
Vegetables are so expensive. You can’t even price iced fish now. Goat meat is something else. Everything seems to come with an unaffordable price tag.
“All my life, I have never seen where children’s clothing has become this expensive. With N20,000, you are still not sure of getting a dress for a three-year-old baby.
“How much is one earning if I may ask? And you know that for children, Christmas means new clothes, plates of rice, chicken and/or meat
“How do you fulfil these in this hard time? It is as if they just packed all the money in the system and stashed it away for the ordinary people, especially Christian celebrants, to suffer.
“I had to plead with my husband to do the Christmas shopping himself.
It is too depressing for me. What can we do? The children are not ready for excuses. They wanted to celebrate Christmas in style and that is all that matters to them.”
According to traders at Mutum Daya Market, patronage dropped this Christmas when compared to previous year’s. They attributed high prices to the cost of transportation, occasioned by the unending fuel scarcity.
Albert sUlegha sells vegetables at Jalingo Central Market: “The cost of bringing some of these vegetables to the market is neck breaking, yet people don’t want to understand. At times, we lost most of our tomatoes, pepper and other fresh vegetables because there are no preservatives and patronage is very low.”
Beyond the market dynamics, cost of transportation affected the celebrations. It forced celebrants to cut their movements. Visits to relatives that used to be one of the highpoints of the celebrations were heavily trimmed down.
Daniel Faasema admitted that due to the hiked transport cost, he spent his Christmas in the state, something he had not done in years and was not happy that he did: “I had beautiful plans of spending it with my family in Abuja. But I could not afford the transport fare.”
Despite these, Christmas festival in the state capital was peaceful, devoid of any untoward incident. And this factor mattered the most.
Churches also conducted soul-lifting services. Reverend Elisha Eyab of the Reformed Church of Christ for Nations, Magani, Jalingo Local Government, described Christ as the Prince of
Peace. He enjoined the faithful to celebrate the joy of Christmas with their loved ones.