prophecies

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What Happened To Our Usual New Year Resolutions and Prophecies? by Emmanuel Oluka.

  Reading through status updates on Whatsapp as well as friends’ posts and comments on social media especially on New Year’s Eve and on New Year day, no doubt, inspired this essay. Indeed, over the years, I usually keep myself busy all through Christmas and New Year festive periods with my phone by reading a plethora of messages on social media. Sincerely, it is a remarkable experience as I’d get to be thrilled with most messages because they’d contain prayers, funny resolutions and prophecies for the New Year. So, in the end, I’d always find myself looking into the New Year with a lot of relish and anticipation. The Whatsapp status updates and social media interactions of friends within the first few days of the year, 2021 revealed a dearth in New Year prophecies. I also observed that people no longer set New Year resolutions. The only thing I noticed closest to a New Year resolution was the trending Stingy Men Association of Nigeria (SMAN). To be candid, I was dying of laughter whenever I saw different versions to the trend on social media. It was so hilarious that I would “laugh myself to stupor”. While it was all fun and cruise, a few were quick to adopt it as their New Year resolution as they refer to it as a decision and a movement to stop obliging every woman (except a wife, mother, daughter or female relative) with money. To these men, they claim it will help them curb financial wastages especially on “side chicks” and girlfriends. To one member in particular, he said, “it is a resolve to choose wisdom over foolishness”.  As interesting as that may seem, there were still a paucity of New Year resolutions from my experience on social media. On “cross-over” night, I left social media and had my eyes fixated on various channels on television to listen to the king of prophecy, Prophet T. B. Jushua. Guess what? He claimed he went to the mountain where God gave him New Year prophecies which would be released later; because, according to him, he had to study it very well. Pastor E. A. Abeboye in his own New Year message said, “the year will be full of testimonies of God’s goodness and Nigerians will hear sounds from heaven”. In Bishop Oyedekpo’s words, he said, “from 2021, you shall not wander in life again. You shall not know disappointments in 2021”. I curiously waited for Prophet Odumejje’s prophecies to no avail. In all these scenarios, there seem to be a paradigm shift in the “usual” New Year prophecies and resolutions; in fact, there is an obvious dip in the willingness of people to make New Year resolutions. Even pastors, preachers and prophets are becoming very careful in their prophecies concerning what the New Year brings. This sets the tilt for this essay, as an attempt is made to unravel the situations surrounding the dearth in the usual New Year prophecies and resolutions; hence, the essay title, “What happened to our usual New Year resolutions and prophecies?” So, in my quest, I engaged some friends. The following dialogue ensued… ***   “Cheers to a New Year Chizy, this one you’re beaming with smiles on your display picture, you definitely have a lot in stuck already for 2021. I can see it appears you’ve set goals and resolutions for the New Year and can’t wait to hit the ground running, right?” Chizy responded saying, “my dear, who New Year resolutions help? No doubt you’ve forgotten last year, 2020 was a mad year, right? I can’t kill myself abeg… I need to study this year carefully.” I exploded into laughter and said, “Babe, you’re always filled with fireworks anytime. You can never be caught on the wrong side at all. Best wishes my dear”. Then, engaging the next friend, I became a bit intentional… “Jacy, have you made your New Year resolution as requested by the Ketogenic food group members on Whatsapp? Remember you promised you were going to eat more healthily and punish some body fats to keep your modeling dreams alive”. However, Jacy chuckled and replied, “No be small thing o… I had finished two wraps of ‘akpu’ when I remembered I even made a resolution yesterday. The temporary closure of the fruit market due to covid-19 safety guidelines lured me into the temptation and I fell for it”. The next thing I blurted was, “Eiyaa… I really feel your pain”. And the laughter continued… I engaged Kizito, my childhood friend at Federal Government College, Ugwolawo (FGCU). “Paddi, how far… How the New Year go be na? Recall that by this time during our formative years at Ugwolawo, we already had our New Year resolutions figured out to be submitted to our form masters upon resumption. Does such practice ever exist in schools these days?” No sooner had I finished than he responded, “Oh nostalgia… Nna, the question rather should be, ‘how many students nowadays know what a New Year resolution is all about?’ Meanwhile, Covid-19 pandemic have so disrupted FGCU’s resumption calendar already”. Then, I said, “good old days are obviously lost; lost with time; lost with the pandemic.” I also had some time with my cousin. See excerpts… “Tony, I rang you few minutes after 12 o’clock on New Year day, but you did not respond. Wetin happen?” “No vex…” he said… “I was at the crossover night in church”. “How did it go?” I asked… Tony was really a crazy dude. He replied saying, “Prophet Odumejje was busy shouting up and down. I was expecting strong prophetic New Year message from him. But it’s clear I wasted my time and my sleep yesterday. That was how he was not able to predict the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic last year”. He finished his response with a hiss.   *** Well, do not ask me how the rest discussions ended…   To a large extent, something was common from the engagements; year 2020 and the Covid-19

Essays, Writers

Five Reasons For A Dearth In The Usual New Year Prophecies And Resolutions by Bolaji Alade.

  Writer’s note: This piece employs in its entirety the use of satire and comic to present factual reasons for the dearth in the traditional new year prophecies and resolutions in year 2021. It is by no means an attempt to scoff at your belief or otherwise on this topic. There is no better way to identify a man or a woman of Nigerian descent other than their thirst for new year prophecies. After all, the elders say, a fly that has no counsellor follows the corpse to the grave. Hence, as a Nigerian, if you genuinely desire to maximize a new year, it is a must to consult one of the selected few who have unlimited access to divinity to give you heads up on how your year will be. Know this and know peace. Your bucket list of new year resolutions will be an exercise in futility if you fail to do this. For accurate new year resolutions are only those borne out of  crystal clear new year prophecies. Could you read that again and let it sink deep? However, there seems to be a scarcity of new year prophecies, and its ripple effect, resolutions in 2021. Consequently, there are many flies in the absence of counsel headed for the grave with the corpse. But how did things get this bad? Just relax. Grab what’s left of your new year’s chicken and enjoy the ride. Covic- 1,9 Please, no disrespect to Bubu. (You’re not Nigerian enough if you need anyone to explain this joke to you.) Back to the matter, the public health emergencies ravaging the seven continents brought the world to its knees during the first wave. By its second wave, it’s now apparent the virus intends to keep the world grounded as long as there are covidiots who refuse to take precautionary measures. That said, the covic pandemic is causing more uncertainty than fatalities. In one breadth there is a lockdown, in another, there is the imposition of a curfew. And as you already know, the strength of prophecy lies in its certainty. But that’s what 2020 was all about; bursting bubbles. Case in point was Musa who received a prophecy that he will be in America by April but had his dream knocked down by national lockdown both in his supposed country of departure and arrival. So since Musa carried over last year prophecy do you expect him to request for new projections? Think about it. Sadly, owing to the annual prophecy receiving ritual codenamed crossover night cancelled to curtail the spread of  Covic 1,9 many religious faithful in Nigeria could not gather to receive prophecies for the new year. Anyways, Pandemic 1- 0 Nigerian religious faithful. Vibes and inshallah There is no better way to lead a fulfilled life than to live by the impulses of vibes backed up with inshallah. And although it took Nigerians 60 years post Independence to realize this, it was the most significant discovery of 2020. Isn’t it cute to live without the pressure of fulfilling specific prophecies or bounding yourself all in the name of resolutions when You Only Live Once—YOLO! Nothing’s been cuter, and Nigerians are keeping it a hundred. I have never been more proud of this country. This youth propagated liberating school of thought frowns at overthinking, deliberate planning and a visionary mindset which at a closer look is stressful at best, and frustrating at worse. With the increasing acceptance of this philosophy, the archaic practice of new year prophecies and resolutions has lost its grip on Nigerians. Therefore, we’re free like a bird.   The gods are angry The gods are angry and rightly so. In fact, at this junction, I cannot agree more with my mentee Ola Rotimi when he said, The Gods Are Not to Blame. You see, to receive prophecies, the gods must be at peace with you. Little wonder why they say, If the vulture fails to hover at the end of a sacrifice, then you know that something happened in the land of spirits. In this case, the disregard for the gods has grieved the spirits. As a result of one or two inaccurate prophecies given by the gods last year, many cast aspersion on the gods’ legitimacy only to turn to them this year for prophecies. And shall we continue to cast aspersion on the gods and request for prophecies to abound? Tufiakwa! When dealing with the gods, a man must not speak out of both sides of his mouth. So as it is, the gods have locked up, hence lack of prophecies and proper resolution you’re witnessing in the year 2021. Inflation At exactly midnight on January 1 2020, all Nigeria’s myriad of problem disappeared. It was the national dimension of, New Year; New Me. Old things in Nigeria passed away, but inflation didn’t. I believe it must have crept into 2020 while Nigerians are lost in the euphoria of how all planned for vision 2020 is about to become a reality suddenly. After all, if we did think it, we can achieve it, Lol. Creeping inflation soon gained its ground and skyrocketed. When it did, it dealt with everything on the Nigerian soil, beneath it and above. The government says it was due to the pandemic, but you know this is a common NIGER-AREA epidemic, as old as miss Flora Shaw herself. To hit the nail on its head: the year 2020 inflation proved abortive all resolutions and resolution makers. Typically, a disappointed Amaka could not save up to six figures as she can’t even afford three square meal. What next? The battle of survival began. This battle threw Nigerians into great turmoil late 2020, and all that filled their minds were survival strategies. At this moment, you would agree the least on their mind would be hunger or thirst for new year’s prophecies. And since it takes appetite and desires to receive it, many Nigerians failed the test while preoccupied with survival means. Hence,

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