Are You Traveling Home This December? BY AGBA JALINGO

In 51 days from today we will be in December. We all know what happens in December. Most people want to go home to their villages and hometowns. It’s the holiday season. But if you are planning to go to the village, kindly take note of the following:

1. With the most recent adjustment of pump price of petrol by NNPC, the price of PMS is now officially over 1k.
2. Consequently, the cost of everything in Nigeria will still increase marginally. From food, to electricity, to transportation, to every other thing.
3. Usually, with or without petrol, prices of things go up every December. That will not change this year.
4. We are not in December yet, a bag of rice is already 120k. It will go higher this October because of Tuesday’s petrol price hike and will increase further when we go into December. So a bag of rice will not sell for less than 150k in December. That’s more than 2 months federal minimum wage, untouched.
5. The cost of children’s shopping for Christmas will triple, if not more. If you know you will buy the kids anything. Go and do that now or latest by the first week of November. That’s salary week.
6. Transport from Calabar to Obudu for instance, that used to cost 3k is now 15k. By December it will not be less than 20k for one way. To and fro, 40k. If you decide to drive, calculate how much fuel you will buy. I don’t want to go near what the cost of flight tickets this December will be.
7. As always expected, there will be a lot of insecurity on the roads this December due to bad roads and because there are a lot more young people who have gotten more despondent and desperate and have fallen into kidnapping for ransom, both along highways and at country homes in our villages.
8. Don’t also forget that there are friends, family and acquaintances waiting back home for you to come in December, so you can give them money. The biting hardship in the cities is more excruciating in our villages and hometowns.
9. No matter the suffering, no matter the deprivation, no matter the shame it will bring you, no matter the promises and expectations, please avoid loan apps this December and always, if you want to live long. It is better to take all the former temporarily and avoid the latter permanently. Avoid taking loans of any form, whether from friends or family, just to celebrate Christmas. Don’t do it for any reason. Work towards getting funds for the celebration. If it doesn’t turn out according to plan, be humble; call a friend or family member or your local church and beg. It is better than getting a loan.
10. Don’t also forget that January is very long. It is a month that sluggishly comes to an end when you have emptied your financial bowels in December. From household expenses to school fees, January is the proverbial pregnancy that needs to be prepared for ahead.

So if you ask me, unless you have stacks of money stocked somewhere, bundle what you have and waybill it home and send alerts to the accounts of the many that you can, back home and sit back, unless it is unavoidably necessary for you to go. Do video calls with your loved ones in the village during the holiday period. Get a good venue in your location and take your family out there on Christmas day and have fun and return to your home and watch television together on Band A.

Note: This counsel is not for everyone. It is only to whom it may concern.

Citizen Agba Jalingo is the Publisher of CrossRiverWatch and a rights activist, a Cross Riverian, and writes from Lagos.

NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.