The firstmonth of the year is just getting into its second half, and this is just the
beginning of the worst it is known for, especially, among wage earners. Januarystarts every year with celebrations on the first and through to, at best, themiddle. New year fantasies and pageantry last only two good light weeks. Theonly unlikely experience belying the celebrations is the paltry of learning towrite the new date correctly. This year, it is more a challenge than the usual.This, remember, is the beginning of a new decade as well.I hear youcannot now write the date in contraction again, after all the ten years of ofour bad decade of insurgency, until next year. Example: 01-01-20 is wrong. Youcan only write: 01-01-2020. But that you can do so from next year. I saw thisin a message on Whatsapp, whose argument I contest with keenest. But personalstyle can be crazy, you know. It is no respecter of rules or even housestyles.So anything is possible and can be true or wrong. It is the age of everyoneknows because everyone has.
January isthe Nigerian public servant’s nightmare, out of eleven other innocent months,except for wetty but drypocket August. And the beginning of this decade, thanksto January, is no different from the annual scare and frights coming along withsetting in January or, worsestill, January’s wicked second half. January ispreceded by darling damned, delicious December. It is the shortest of theyear,followed by February. Others are just normal months.
Decemberand February sandwich January in pre- and post- definition akin to that ofprefixes and suffixes in words making sentences like months make a year.December baits the salarian into temptations of nearing end of year onceDecember sets. That carries bundles of hope. It means a new year is here.
ButDecember promises and assures early salary too, in massive compliments, by the25th latest, for almost all workers except those on calamities of stage failurein processes of their own organisations, or those whose badluck announces awicked farewellbid at the end of the year.
Decembersalary usually carries, in most cases, the punctuations of sum pay of arrearsin anything – shortfall, bonuses, accumulate allowances, promotion arrears,backlog of anything. Huge smile to year’s end. But then that is also greeted byend of year mass expenses of different sorts – end of year family home visits,Christmass, marriages, end of year parties, association or club annual meetingsor cultural summit of ethnic encleavages for local champions, or religiousgathering. We are a lavish people. Do not accuse the yorubas alone as partyingpeople. We are all involved in different ways. So it is swollen purses greetedby grown demands.
The breakis like vacation on the carribean islands. It steals your senses away, and likehoneymoon sets to pitch the woman against the man in the marriage ahead, thevacation removes your sense of reason and takes your guts away. You hardlyremember you have a pregnant wife expected delivery on the January 25. Howabout that. I hear you say, Nooooo! But well, notice has been given eightmonths back.
Back homein January, after everyone returns from the village, senses of workers settledown to the reality of fresh January just begining the first week, giving hopeof new year, new hopes, new aspirations and the promise of a possible blessingof a house, car, good health and long life, depending on everyone’s ownpriorities. But there is one promise January does not tell anyone. It is silenton that. And that is its own lenth. Thanks to January’ hide of the bitter truth.Gradually, the hopes begin to diminish as January pulls into its days.
Only thosesalarians who receive the annual lashes of the year’s longest month rememberthe depth of the challenges which set into life this time of January.December’s gift of early salary and accumulate bonuses had met the lavish prideof uncontrolled personal expenditure during the break in exchange for hugeservices for status symbol bigboyism and egos enlisted, which dazzled,intimidated and harrassed the village poor and young girls. That is norespecter to anything January expects soon. It is blind.
And soreality dwells down on handout remnants of fuel or transport budgets.Everything, most monies spent. God loves you if you have foodstuff left backhome, a remnant of cookingas in the cylinder, and may be you bring alongvillage stuffs in fish and bush meat if you come from hunting or riverineplaces.
Salary isthe most unlikely source of living. Thanks to the Hausa name for it: albashi. Literally it means, even if youtake a billion as salary, if you have to wait to monthend to get it, forget. Itis the same vicious cycle that binds you with the level one officer in yourworkplace.
It is okayto be a salarian. But thank your Lord your brothers are not wicked and yourinlaws are kind and generous. And may your car tank still half the bar, enoughfor two weeks of local school runs. Shshsh! Do not talk of school fees. I didnot mention that. Do not blame me. Na you talk that one.
January isthe most wicked month of the year. It maltreats the salarian and does not giveany lesson in return. It does not give any measures of alleviation, copingstrategy or suggestions as guards for January’s cruelties. It does not givehard lessons to teach the salarian to prep. It does not provide alternatives.It just does not care how you get out of the depth of the ocean in that longswim to the riverbank and to the breath of February’s breeze.
Junary is such a humbling month, too. It humbles the rich and make them meet the poor in unison harmony of human brotherhood of life. Only few unkind poor will look into the reddish eyes of the poor worker weakened by January’s unkindness and say, “welcome to our world. Come sit under the three with us, after work.” Good times for all, isn’t it? Enforced unity. Money is the evil that divides Nigerians, no mater the amount.
This is the friendliest times workers also have with the jobless and provisional shop owners. Everything goes for the record debt book, already swells to frequent updates from unpaying customers. The shops lean and replacement is not possible, until end of January, which is no where here. Pity the traders too. It is like January leaves no one out.
Nothingmakes up for January and its excesses on the salarian. Nothing. It is an annualfeat of life the lucky living must experiences. And there is nothing anyone cando about it. That is why no one cares anymore. No one prepares to preventanything this time. It is like theinjection you have to take to treat malaria. It is painful and scary. But oncedone, you get relieve set in by sweat.
That isreason smart Nigerians or the ajebos ran fast from January, a seven letter wordand into a ten word deep ditch of corruption, in trying to do anything to avoidthe devastattion of poverty, the seven word sister to January. I dont know howmany escape it. But I know many who do so only on interim measure. Anotheryear, the chase catches them easy close, and they are arrested back to face thewrath of January again.
Januaryis, in the end, huge fun for workers. It has become a routine. It is a part oflife in a year that makes some good part of the life we desire to enjoy. Butthen find something in laternative that is more sustaining, an additional legaland clean income that does not compete in time for the salary work you doJanuary.
Meanwhile, you are just a colleague in the journey of living out January to its damned end. So here you are. Enjoy it as it lasts. Catch the experience and the fun. But as you wobble, do know that February is still eleven days away. Goodluck. Enjoy.
Hassan Alhaji Hassan can be contacted on 08032829772/08050551220 (text only with full names and address)abuna2406@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.
