WAHALA ON PARADE

 

I was thinking this morning.... about Nigeria and our home grown problems which we refer to as wahala. Like every nation of the world, Nigeria faces challenges that are unique to us, similar to our uniquely Nigerian slangs. One of such slangs that has gained ascendancy in the last few months is the 'wahala be like...' slang

The last two weeks has been a mentally difficult period for Nigerians. Why So? The Yorubas will say 'wahala o ti poju.' After a relatively peaceful Easter celebrations, we woke up on Monday 5th April with the news of gunmen attacking a prison facility and police command centre in the city of Owerri, Imo state, destroying part of the prison walls with explosives and freeing 1,844 inmates. How quickly things turn from good to bad. As I wondered, I recalled the first of the 'wahala be like..' slang that says 'wahala be like noodles, two minutes e don ready.'

I was still praying for peace in Nigeria, when on Tuesday 6th April, Nigerian activist, Aisha Yesufu was reported to have said that she is okay and ready to seek visas to visit Kano, Lagos, and Enugu States. This was in response to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s comment that should Nigeria break up, one would need a visa to come to Kano. Yes, most of us are fed up with the state of affairs in Nigeria, but not enough to fuel the break up agenda because 'wahala be like Uganda, e de easy to enter but difficult to comot.'

With wahala everywhere, the IGP has his plate full. On the 7th of April, he was in Imo state trying to find a solution to the frequent attacks on police stations, when he was sacked. I can imagine his shock thinking 'but my 3 months tenure extension is not over.' Yea right, but such is life because 'wahala be like bicycle, e no hard to start but difficult to stop.'

With high unemployment rates, inflation and ongoing insecurity, the wahala rain continued to pour. The last thing Nigeria needed was a strike. But that was exactly what happened on Thursday 8th April as the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) went on strike to protest poor working conditions and pay. The jaw-jawing was on when members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike. As the Minister was asking 'what's going on here? I responded 'wahala be like okro soup....e dey draw.'

Surely, that must be all the wahala we can have in a single week. So I thought until I listened to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, raising the alarm over Nigeria’s financial trouble and how the Federal government had to print about N60 billion to augment allocation shared to states in March. I shouted in disbelief 'what's going on in this country? I was still shouting when the March 2021 inflation rate was released to have risen to 18.17% and food inflation jumped to 22.95%, the highest in 4 years. How can the government just print money like campaign flyers and not expect Inflation?' Chai! I was about to say 'wahala dey o' but instead I said 'wahala be like naira, it is never in short supply to politicians.

Wahala here, wahala there, wahala everywhere. It doesn't matter how the wahala be, you will come out better because Psalms 34:19 says 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.'

Stay hopeful. God's got your back.

Happy Sunday.

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey