This time last year, Joan was in school like many of her peers preparing for their semester examinations and building up the excitement in anticipation of the coming festive season. At the time, little did Nigeria know that the phrase ‘detty December’ would be the order of the day as people were getting in to the partying, celebration and relaxation mode.
By the middle of November, the internet quickly started getting flooded with videos and pictures of individuals flexing and getting ready to spend money more lavishly as everyone was pretty elated to see a long year come to an exciting end. More importantly, people were hopeful for a much better and booming 2020.

Meanwhile, 2020 has undoubtedly been a spiral of shocking events which has thrown lots of people off balance. So, what should we anticipate for the end of the year?
Will this Christmas season be another replication of Detty December or a much more frugal pattern given that many persons have lost a lot this year, spanning from loved ones to cherished earnings and assets?
The year 2020 began with the escalation of the coronavirus lockdown which led to a 4-months lockdown across the world.

Just when we thought it was over and everyone was still trying to recover from the COVID-induced death plague, the cry of #JusticeforUwa who was gang raped in a Redeemed Church in Edo state, #Justiceforbarakat who was violated at her family house in Ibadan, #JusticeforTina and other ladies who have been physically and unjustly abused, trended in search of enforcing justice through national laws.
Next was the #Blacklivesmatter movement which surfaced when George Floyd was unjustly killed by a Minneapolis police officer called Derek Chauvin, sparking a global non-violent protest against police brutality and discrimination of black people.


Although these global trends have very much impacted Nigeria in diverse ways, Africa’s biggest giants has had its fair share of turbulence as inflation has been rising for the past 2 years from 11.23% in August 2018 to 13.71% in September 2020.
However, a popular Economist named Steve Hanke, a Professor of Applied Economics at American Ivy League University, United States, has confirmed common perceptions that the actual reality of difficulties faced by Nigerians is greatly downplayed by official reports due to the highly informal and poorly organised data collection mechanisms.

Asides recently putting Nigeria’s inflation at around 30%, Hanke states that unemployment has more than tripled to 27%, that is, 21.7 million unemployed persons out of the over 200 million total population. When layered with the electricity shortage, bad roads, terrible traffic, Nigeria is sadly one of the most miserable countries to live in.
This is in addition to the most recent event that seems to top the economic dilemma of Africa’s most populous nation in form of the #EndSARS movement which rocked Nigeria’s quest for revolution and demand for a better Nigeria in opposing police brutality. Sadly, this led to the unwarranted death of an unknown number of Nigerians as men in uniform were seen shooting the protesters at Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020.

Currently, schools which have not had physical attendance for most of the year due to resorting to online classes during the lockdown, are gradually resuming academic activities now that the country has ended the curfew that followed the #EndSARS protest.
Can any more havoc possibly be wrecked upon Nigeria over the next few weeks? We really hope not because Nigerians are rather drained in surviving through the numerous hardships imposed by a failed system on us already.
Although the pockets of many Nigerians are still very tender as this year appears to be chaos-filled, will Nigerians be able to be extravagant in satisfying their heart desires or will the worsening socioeconomic condition of Nigeria overshadow?

Taking a trip down memory lane, December has always been a period where prices (including food, transport and other essential commodities) drastically escalate and fuel scarcity tends to trouble Nigerians.
These trending issues threaten to stand as a roadblock to many Nigerians like Joan who seek to spoil themselves and relax after a very stressful long year in 2020 especially given the already persistent trend of rising inflation, unemployment and poverty levels.
For instance, on the average, travelling by road from Lagos to Abuja by God is Good motors, the young shall grow and other transportation mediums cost about N6k-N8k. But by December 2019, this price had spiked to N15k-20k. The same thing cuts across airplane flights and pretty much anything that involves spending money.

If this is to happen, then the next question is, will Nigerians be able to afford this? Undeniably, the woes of the nation will definitely eat into excessive spending habits but then, Nigeria has always been known as a consuming nation and that is not going to change overnight, particularly since the general culture is to prioritise the festive season.
Most persons all over the world are given to travelling home for Christmas as this is often the opportunity to spend quality time with family, and this includes the Igbo tribe of Nigeria, who do not joke with travelling to their village for festivities.
So, despite the projected rise in inflation, most Nigerians will still want to find a way to enjoy the yuletide season to the best of their ability even if it means draining their accounts, especially going by the popular phrase, “I cannot come and kill myself”. However, Nigerians will be significantly constrained given the prevalence of shallow pockets and low-income levels among other difficulties.

https://businessday.ng/bd-weekender/article/in-a-few-weeks-time-detty-december-or-personal-finance-for-the-yuletide-season/amp/