Angela Jonah @fairy

Most people do have this belief that the end of a year, and the beginning of a year is meant to be accompanied by tragic incidents, that will claim lives and leaving shocking damages, so it seems, but there are ones that can be avoided. There is this man I normally fill my gas cylinder with, he also welds and repairs fridges and cylinders with leakages. He made top headlines of recent, people say it's manipulation from the spirit realm, I'm not sure of what it is.

On the first week of January, 2025, this man as usual went about his normal business of filling and repairing gas cylinders. His workplace is right in front of house. I don't know what he was thinking, but he welded a cylinder that is filled up with gas, and you know the implications. The cylinder exploded, fire surged through all that premises and killed three people instantly; the owner of the cylinder who is a teenage girl, a man and his son in their shop close by.

The man himself didn't die, but was burnt badly, including his wife and son, the fire caught up anything that was around that place, including house. As at now, the wife and son are still at the hospital, the man is undergoing medical treatment under police custody. Because of it, all roadside gas fillers in this region has been banned for now, till further notice. People's opinion on the matter are much, with some saying it's carelessness, spiritual manipulation, tragic incident that comes with a new year.

I feel pity for the man, no one will do such a thing a purpose, it was a mistake, a costly one. But come to think of it, how will someone with many years experience of filling and repairing cylinders, make such an expensive mistake, that's where people draw their view of spiritual manipulation. Everyone knows that a filled cylinder shouldn't be exposed to fire, but the owner of the cylinder went to weld it, was she manipulated too? You see you can't really say exactly what it is, you can only give opinion.

The more reason you need to start the year with God, and end the year with God. Carefulness, diligence and knowledge about things we deal with still remains the watch word in everything we do, and with God fully involved, I don't think we will have things go wrong like this. I strongly believe that this incident could have been avoided.

So I finally have a travelling experience to describe as the worse of all, it was like a nightmare, an unforeseen and unfortunate event. That was when I was traveling home for Christmas, my parents called me early that morning to pack my things and get to the bus park on time, since it's a journey of 12 hours. The first bus leaves my 7:00am, I really tried to be at the park before then, but couldn't, and ended up arriving 30 minutes after the time.

And no other bus in that park was going to my state again, so I went to another place and boarded a very unfamiliar roadside bus park, as long as it was going to take me to my destination. The driver planned to drop off people at three separate destinations, before finally getting to mine, I didn't see any problem with it sha. The bus took off by 9:00am, and got spoilt after an hour, we waited for over two hours before it was repaired.

The bus took off again and got spoilt a second time, this was about 3:00pm in the afternoon, and we have not covered even half of the distance. We waited because we didn't have any other choice, we paid for the fare already. It took the driver till around 6:00pm before it was fixed, and then came up another problem; the bus had no headlamp and it was dark already. The driver had to fixed the headlamp, there is no way I was going to be inside a bus in the night without headlamp, it's simple suicide.

It was as if the driver had just excavated the bus from the earth, after being buried for centuries, things were just spoiling up and down. My parents started calling, I narrated the whole situation to them, they were terribly scared, it was night. The bus moved again around 7:00pm, and on arriving it's first destination around 10:00pm, the driver told us that he can't continue the journey again that night, that we'll have to sleep there at the park and continue again early the next morning.

I called my parents and told them, my mother freaked out and started crying and calling on God, she was terrified how her daughter will sleep at a park in an unknown place. My mum started telling me to text her the plate number of the vehicle, the address of the place, photos and videos of the place, I should switch-on the location on my phone and send her the GPS. My head was on fire through all of this, I shouldn't have joined the bus, but it was too late for that, how to get home safely was the goal now.

We were there till 11:00pm, when the driver found another bus for us that was going to our destination and beyond, my mother was almost going through severe shock and fatal heartbreak, she asked me for the plate number of the new vehicle, for security purposes. My mother called me almost every 5 minutes till the bus got to my destination by 1:00am. My parents drove to road to pick me back home, my mother's eye was red, she shedded tears, scared that the current insecurity in the country was no time to be on the road that late.

I fell sick because of the stress, I didn't expect that kind of thing to happen, it was something I have never experienced. There is no way I'm ever going to use a bus park that I'm not familiar with, my mother almost had a heart attack. I'm just imagining what could have happened if my phone went off in the process, my mother would have literally slumped, or perhaps entered into a coma. Using an old and unstable bus to drive a very far distance is barbaric, endangering the lives of people and wasting their time.

This holiday has been full of fun for me, I visited a lot of family members and friends, took a lot of tour to places of interest, it was awesome. I visited my Aunty's house, she is one of the family members that I like the most, so I spent a couple of days in her house. She has three kids, all girls, the eldest of them is 6 years old and the smallest is about 2 years old. My Aunty is a teacher in a private school, regardless that it is holiday, she was need urgently in the school.

She doesn't have a maid, so certainly she had to go to the school with the kids, it was an important meeting she had to attend. So she asked me to go with her, so I can help her to look after the kids, I happily agreed, at least it is part of touring around the town and going to places. We arrived the school, and my Aunty took me and the kids to the creche to stay, while she attended the meeting. The TV there was on, cartoon was on, everything looked okay.

Shortly after, the smallest of the kids started disturbing, crying uncomfortably, I could hardly comprehend what the problem was. I bathed them in the creche's restroom, fed them but the smallest refused to eat. The cry didn't cease, I carried her on my shoulders, walked around the creche, still didn't help. One of the staffs came in and tried to help me out, but the little girl was at maximum crying gear. The staff narrated that it's the little girl's nature, and won't stop until she sees the mother.

This girl cried for almost an hour, at this point, I was very exhausted, the girl too was exhausted, but refused to give up completely. The other siblings disturbed in their own way, I had never faced something like that before, my eyes had changed colour, the tiredness was visible on my face. I laid flat on the floor with the kids by my side, disturbing me as if they want to end my life right there, I prayed in my heart that the mother should be done with the meeting soonest.

When the mother returned, it's as if she knew the kind of stress the kids will put me through, she laughed when she saw me laying on the floor very exhausted. I told myself that I'm never doing that type of thing again, even if I'm paid or not. But then I remembered that I'm a lady and will have kids one day, I will pray for supernatural grace and strength when the time comes. I never knew that looking after kids could be that stressful.

It is only joyous when they have fully grown, but as toddlers, you're up for stress everyday of your life. I only spent 6 hours in the creche with them, now I'm feeling sick. My Aunty was making fun of the incident, telling me she is teaching me to look after kids, I replied by saying that I will learn automatically when my own kids arrive. Make I no come kpai myself in the name of training. I survived, I'm never doing it again after I recover, never! Grace will come when I have mine.

So many things have changed when it comes to Christmas, I remember how it used to be years back when I was a kid, it is not to be compared to the way it is now. The momentum has gone down, not the way it used to be. I have walked around, checked everywhere, I'm yet to see any incident that is similar to the ones that occurred every Christmas as a kid. I don't know if it's the hardship in the economy, a lot has changed and it's not that much fun anymore.

I remember how my mother will use broom stick or sewing thread to measure my legs for my Christmas shoe. Christmas cloth will be bought some days to Christmas, I can remember sleeping with my Christmas cloth, shoe, fancy eye glasses and hat on my bed, every night before Christmas. Making sure to check up on the items on a daily basis, giving it maximum care and respect and all efforts made to prevent it from staining with dirt.

My parents kept a criteria to be qualified for all this items, it could be that you must obedient, and not stubborn. It could be that you must pass your exams well, and I'm telling you that every kid back then will put on his/her best behavior in order for their parents to buy them Christmas clothes and shoes. That is why we had more good kids back then, children didn't give their parents problems. And if you fail to meet up with the criteria, you fit the prize.

I remember one certain Christmas where I fumbled, and couldn't meet up with the criteria, I was denied the prize, I cried my eyes out, but I made sure it never happened again afterwards, I did better. All this starting losing momentum when kids don't have to compete or put on their best to get the Christmas prize. Something I used to spend sleepless nights, imagining how I will flex with my outfit on Christmas, we looked up to the day as the most special of all days.

Not to talk about harmattan and fireworks. Back then harmattan will literally turned people into white, but now there is no more harmattan, not in my state, everywhere looks like other regular months. Fireworks would have been rocking everywhere, but now it's too expensive to spend cash on, when you haven't finished buying garri and rice and Christmas chicken. So expensive that you will be pained to buy it, and that's why I haven't heard any this season. I don't know if it is like this in other states, but this is the situation currently in my state.

My childhood days are the type to remember and give out a heavy laughter, pack filled adventure that was embarked on with fear and panicking, but remembering it now looks funny. I remember tampering with my father's DVD, breaking and repairing items to cover up, in order not to be caught and scolded. If I'm asked to rank the various incidents, I think this one I'm about to say now should come first.

My father bought a DVD and a film disk was included in the pack, the film was full of action; fighting, gunshots, violence. So my dad hid the film so that we will no longer watch it, because I was already displaying some of the fighting moves in the house. But you know kids fully well, my siblings and I searched and found where my father hid it. We only get to watch the film when my parents are not at home, this continued for a while till something happened.

On this fateful day, we brought out the film, and watched it when my parents were not at home, using NEPA light. But NEPA respects no one, they took the light, leaving the disk in the DVD. Fear gripped us, we knew we will be scolded if my father finds out, so my siblings and I launched a rescue mission. We went to switch-on the generator, but we got ourselves into another big problem; the rope used to rotate the engine cut into two.

What a problem! My brother went to buy a new rope, while I loosened the DVD using my mother's kitchen knife. For the first time of loosing a DVD, I didn't know what to do, but I figured it out, I successfully removed the disk and coupled the DVD back. By the time my brother returned from buying the rope for the generator, we figured out how to fix it back, it took us hours, but we finally got everything done.

The things that fell apart to us were put back together, though with fear and uncertainty, but the fear of getting scold wouldn't let us give up without at least giving it a try. I don't think there is anybody as a kid that didn't do anything bad or unacceptable, and then try to cover up. The aim is always not to receive beatings, and the thing is that kids will keep on getting themselves into problems after the other untill they are fully grown up, some of us discovered our talents and what we are good at in the process. Imagine me uncoupling and coupling a DVD, I no reach to be engineer?

We have come to another festive period again, some people have taken it upon themselves, to source for Christmas money anyway they can, not minding if it's legal or not. The rate of activities of thieves this days is increasing rapidly, and if we look deeper, it will be just to impress somebody; girlfriend and fellow friends most especially. My parents called me some days back to tell me what thieves did to them and my aunty, in a short space of time.

My aunty came all the way from Abuja to visit my parents, on arriving the park, she carried big bags, and so she paid this guys with wheelbarrow, that help carry goods, to where she is supposed to board a vehicle. Shockingly, the wheelbarrow transporters zoomed off with the bags and disappeared into the aunty, making away with my aunty stuffs, painful right? In a very crowded place, they moved faster than my aunty and stole away her bags.

My aunty now got to my parents house without anything but her handbag, very awful thing. And when they left for church on a Sunday, a thief broke into the house and stole the TV and some other items. It is now as if this season is the season for thieves. The luck my parents had is that there is an hotel next to the house that has a CCTV camera facing their house, they met the hotel manager and accessed the video recording, and found out who it was.

The thief had sole the TV, the mother begged my parents not to arrest the thief, so the mother had to refund the money back to the person that bought the TV and get it back. Some of the stolen items could not be retrieved, the mother of the guy paid for every single one of them. Just that my parents are not violent, the thief would have been dealt with the normal way people handle them. It's the birth of Jesus Christ we're celebrating, how does stealing fit in? Isn't this season supposed to be about love, peace and reconciliation with God? I tire oh.

Some police officers always like standing at this particular roundabout that is always very busy, extorting money from vehicles for no reason. Instead of trying to reduce the heavy traffic, they make it worse, allowing vehicles that bribe them to make illegal turns and drive one way. The junction was adjacent to our house, we see this everyday. I remembered how they embarrassed my brother when dropped from a taxi, and crossed the road back home, thinking he was running from them.

But on this fateful day, their deeds catched up with them, convoy of army were passing along that road and got stuck in the go-slow, some military officers walked on foot to the front to see what is causing the go-slow. Only to find the police doing what they always do there, the army officers got pissed off and extremely angry. The police got surrounded, disarmed, and made to do frog jump, accompanied by whips from the koboko. I saw surprised seeing army officers dealing with police officers in that manner.

Some of the police officers tried to escape, they ran and got chased by the army officers. One of the police officers ran into our compound, he removed his police uniform, leaving only the white T-shirt he wore under, in order to disguise himself as a civilian. He begged my mother not to expose him to the army officers, it was a funny moment for me, my mother was like, "so now you can beg? But the only thing you know is collect money from people". We didn't expose him, the humiliation was enough.

People watched as the police officers got drilled, people looked happy oh, because this police officers are always on people's nerves. No police officer showed up there again for a week, but you know them na, they started coming around again after a week, bit by bit, I guess they make a lot of money from that spot. We look forward to when the army will visit them again there. I remembered this incident that happened few years back, because of the numerous recent news of police officers extorting money from citizens illegally.

I was walking back home from work few days ago when a white Mercedes Benz stopped in front of me, the glass winded down and a guy in dreadlock tried to talk to me, I was really very tired and wanted to get home as quick as possible, so I tried not to sound rude to the guy. I asked him what he wanted so I can continue heading home, he didn't really have anything reasonable to say, and when I started walking away, he said, "how much for a night?"

Deep inside me I was boiling, but I was out of strength to reply the guy, I kept mute and used the little strength I had still I got home, shows how tired I was. I was very angry after I took my bath and ate something, I wondered why that guy will say such a thing to me, I dressed decently and didn't look like someone cheap or desperate for money. I don't conceive the idea that ladies must depend on guys for money, I work for my money and can take care of myself.

The following day as I woke up and was preparing to go to work, I heard news of girls that got killed, butchered, stacked in a bag and disposed at a junction that leads to my street. I thought to myself that no other set of people, would have done this, other than the type that tried to buy me with money the previous night when I walking home. Girls these days, because of hardship fall easily to traps like this and have their life taken away in a brutal way.

If all the girls will stop depending on guys for money, live decently and responsible, I doubt that this ritual guys will see anyone to use for their evil act. It breaks my heart as I write this; one of those girls that got killed happens to be someone I know, we're not close, but at least I use to see her around and I know where she lives. How do you comfortable follow somebody with so much money and luxury, yet no one knows the source of the money.

Girls have to be wise in this end of the year if they want to live and see next year and beyond, stop being desperate for money, only people that are alive enjoy money, there is no enjoyment of money in the grave. Until girls come to this realization and call themselves to discipline, rituals will continue to wax strong, this is the fourth time that deaths like this is happening in my area within a month.