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by Ngozi Razak-Soyebi

G21 AFRICA Contributing Writer

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Ngozi
Razak-Soyebi

LAGOS, NIGERIA -

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know.
Where the treetops glisten,
And children listen To hear sleigh bells in the snow.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write.
May your days be merry and bright.
And may all your Christmases be white.

"White Christmas" ... largest selling Christmas single of all time, written by Irving Berlin and recorded by Bing Crosby in 1942 at the depth of World War II and still a favorite worldwide to date.

When I was a little girl growing up in the northern part of the country, Christmas had a special significance to me. It wasn't just the feverish excitement in the air or the special shopping or the eager anticipation for a new Christmas dress that set the day aside from any other and made it memorable; it was the feeling that we, as a country, were at peace with each other. Sadly, it isn't so anymore.

In high school, Chemistry wasn't one of my strong subjects. Biology was, though. Can you blame me with all those reproductive organs leaping out at me from the pages? Anyway, I might not have been good in Chemistry -- indeed I sailed through with a weak pass -- but I do recall enough to know that [the term] "boiling point" is referred to the temperature at which a liquid passes from the liquid state to the gaseous state. I have decided to borrow these words to describe the state of affairs in my homeland today.

Recently, in Web Event 402, our esteemed editor wrote that he sat back to take a look at the articles in his column, "My Glass House," and was appalled to discover that he'd almost become disengaged from himself, gradually losing his sense of humor in the process. While I might not fully agree with him, I do appreciate his feelings. Only recently, too, I glanced through the file containing the articles I've written for the magazine on the situation in my homeland and I felt deeply worried that I never had anything good to write about this country, widely-touted to be the heartbeat of Africa.

Had I, in the fashion of CNN, become a bearer of bad news? Had I joined the bandwagon of anti-government critics who have always thought the grass is greener on the other side?

With these thoughts milling about in my head, I sat back and said to myself, "Ngozi, you are going to do a Christmas special on this great country of ours and what's more you are going to make it good."

Sadly, I can't.

I lift my pen to write and it just will not gloss over or make light of a country that is breaking apart at the seams ... a country that is close to boiling point ... a country on the brink of war.

Now, I must state clearly that I am not an alarmist nor do I belong to any separatist group. Indeed, I strongly believe that it is our diversity that makes us unique as a nation. However, the socio-political situations in the country all point to the fact that we are on the brink of war, and judging from this report culled from the editorial desk of the Punch Newspaper of October 1, 2004, it appears as though I am not the only one who fears that this might be so. I quote:

Amid the economic gloom, ethno-religious crises and separatist tendencies continue to rear their ugly heads. As several thousands of Nigerians have lost their lives in bloody tribal and religious conflicts in the North, armed militia groups, especially in the Niger-Delta region, are busy carving out the nation into spheres of influence. While the insurgence in the North is fired by religious extremism, the Niger-Delta crisis is being fuelled by oil politics. Both issues derive their destructive power from the skewed and unworkable federal structure the military succeeded in foisting on the nation. While the military has been put on full alert, the Council of State, through an advisory body, has asked the President to take adequate measures to deal with anybody threatening the country. This sounds like the era immediately preceding the outbreak of civil war in 1967 ...

Nigeria might still be intact on the map of the world, but we just might be falling apart internally. The north is gradually carving itself out into a strictly Islamic region, the Igbo's in the southeast are clamoring for the return of Biafra, while the gunmen in the Niger-Delta region are purportedly fighting for "self-determination" for their oil-producing region.

Are there any doubts still that the country is falling apart? Yet, in his Independence Day address to the nation, President Olusegun Obasanjo, famous for his unquotable quotes, described the warring factions in the Niger-Delta region as "rascally elements." Now, how's that for a group whose leader, Mujahid Dokubo Asari, claims he has 200,000 gunmen at his disposal?

It would be foolish of me to dream of a white Christmas here in Nigeria with the harmattan winds blowing down from the north, but could we at least hope that our days remain merry and bright at Christmas and afterwards? Surely, that isn't too much to hope for.