By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

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 in it. 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.

But why did our forebears divide time into seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months, and years? The division of time into week, month, and year is necessary in modern times as it helps us to measure our ages. And it helps us to know the exact time and date when our fixed events shall take place. That the division of time into day, week, month, and year is pivotal to our daily living is an indisputable fact.

However, 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.

But how do we know that time has passed? When our faces are wreathed in crinkles and wrinkles, then, we know that time has passed. And the old man gnarled with age, who was once a ramrod straight young man, is a living proof that time has passed. Time runs around in circle and hurries humans into their graves.

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 shockwaves 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. In the year 2024, a great number of young Nigerians died in avoidable boat mishaps. Their deaths could have been averted were our systems of doing things working, perfectly. And innumerable number of Nigerians died via road accidents in 2024 because of the bus drivers? recklessness and the existence of bad roads in Nigeria.

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, Boko Haram insurgents, and the Fulani 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 leads 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, there.

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, successfully.

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. Those unfortunate Nigerians are always dressed in threadbare clothes and walk in stocking feet. 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 to the people for free. 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, which we lived with in the year 2024 made it an annus horribilis for us.

So we are fervently praying that the year 2025 will be a far departure from 2024. May it be an annus mirabilis for us.

?Chiedu Uche Okoye, a poet, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State. He can be reached via 08062220654 and 09125204141

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