2024:THE MAKING OF ANNUS HORRIBILIS

Can a year steer a middle course and straddle both the good and the bad, which will make our characterization of it indeterminate? To some people, a year can maintain a balance in relation to happenings of good things and bad things. When the number of good things that happened in a given year outnumbered the number of bad things that happened in it, that year would be called an annus mirabilis. And when the opposite happened, the year would be characterized as an annus horribilis. 

  Time is an endless continuum. To me, time alternates between day and night in a ceaseless rhythmic pattern. Time could be likened to the ceaseless flow of the water of a tributary that empties itself into a big river. And time doesn’t stand still. It is always on the move.  

And thankfully, the division of time into day, week, month, and year has made us know that 2024 is doing its last lap. The year 2024 will soon be gone, never to return again. But in the future, people will make reference to it regarding some landmark events that happened in it. But what type of year is 2024? 

Good things and bad things happened in non-alternating sequence in 2024. However, the number of bad things that happened in 2024 outnumbered the number of good things that happened in it. That preponderance of bad things that happened in it has qualified it to be characterized as an annus horribilis. 

Didn’t we witness the deaths of important Nigerian personages in 2024? The duo of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, a politician and businessman and Ms Onyeka Onwenu, an ace musician and actress, kicked the bucket in 2024. But death is so commonplace nowadays that the news of the deaths of persons, especially old persons, cannot make us shed tears. 

But when the life of a man who is in the bloom of youth is cut short, it is a tragic event that will elicit tears from our eyes. So the news of the death of the actor, John Paul Odonwodo(aka Junior Pope) in April 2024 sent shock waves across the length and breadth of Nigeria and beyond. But his colleagues in the film industry, John Okafor(Ibu) and Amaechi Muonagor predeceased him. 

Junior Pope as well as some other film makers died in a boat accident while traveling to a film location. Their deaths have highlighted the fact that our water ways are very unsafe owing to the boat drivers’ non-adherence to safety measures. And innumerable number of Nigerians died via road accidents in 2024 because of drivers’ recklessness coupled with bad roads. 

Again, as the Nigerian military has not successfully extirpated terrorism, banditry, the Boko Haram insurgency, and the Fulani herdsmen menace in our country, terrorists, bandits, insurgents, and herdsmen had run amok in 2024, killing and maiming people. And the southeast of Nigeria was not spared the murderous attacks of non-state actors. 

The enforcers of the Monday-sit-at-home declaration had visited mayhem and deaths on local vigilantes and police personnel. In Anambra State, in November 2024, hooded gunmen, operating unchallenged, pumped hot lead into members of local security outfits at Abatete and Ukpo towns, killing some of them. The carrying out of vicious gun attacks on police stations in the southeast has not ceased, completely. And security personnel have become endangered species. 

Those deaths, which resulted from road crashes, boat mishaps, and gunmen’s attacks have continued to decimate our population in peacetime. Yet human resources are pivotal in national development. It is skilled and knowledgeable people, who will mobilize financial and material resources for execution of projects. And only well-educated people, who have probity and leadership qualities can pilot our country’s affairs at different governmental levels. 

But the sad reality obtaining in our country, now, is that death is stalking our human resources. Those who survived 2024, which is an  annus horribilis, have been reduced to sub-humans by excruciating poverty caused by Nigeria’s dire economic situation. They live below the breadline and scavenge in refuse dumps for leftovers like morsels of bread.They are trapped in poverty because our national economy, which has been in the woods, has failed to look up despite the efforts, which are being made by the APC-led government to shore it up. 

So the angry and hungry Nigerians, who are disillusioned with the state of things in Nigeria, participated in the protest tagged  “end bad governance in Nigeria”. The protest underlined Nigerians’ displeasure with our country’s economic situation and worsening security challenges in the country in 2024. The protesters wanted change and noticeable improvement in their living conditions. 

Driven by hunger, those hungry and angry Nigerians trooped to places where Christmas palliatives were being shared. Sadly, and incredibly, they met their untimely deaths at those places via stampedes. 

The economic hardship we experienced in 2024, the innumerable number of preventable deaths that marred and marked the year, and the monster of insecurity of lives and property,  made it an annus horribilis for us. 

So we are fervently praying that the year 2025 will be a far departure from 2024. 

Chiedu Uche Okoye,

Uruowulu-Obosi,

Anambra State