Love in a season of cholera

Three major events took place in Nigeria in the last 48 hours - First, the 32nd anniversary of the cold-blooded assassination of General Ramat Murtala Muhammed, Nigeria's Head of State, 1975-1976. He was murdered on the streets of Lagos during the coup led by Bukar Dimka on February 13, 1976. Second, the passing out parade of the 2007/8 batch of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), for many Nigerians this means the release of more young men and women into a labour market that has since lost the required absorptive capacity, the evidence of which can be found in the country's ever-lengthening unemployment queue.

Third, yesterday evening, the Yar'Adua government gave National Honours to over 200 persons, for services rendered, not rendered, about to be rendered, or which may never be rendered to the Nigerian state. Each of these events is significant in its own way. Murtala Muhammed deserves to be remembered for his purpose-driven leadership and martyrdom. Each time the NYSC sends out fresh graduates into the labour market, questions ought to be raised about the continuing relevance of the Scheme itself, now so disorganised, and the prospects of its products in a country where opportunities are so few.

Many university graduates now have to spend an extra year at home, waiting for space in a congested NYSC programme. As for the National Honours, the perennial question is why such an important event which should be used to promote national icons, in terms of projected values, has been reduced to a general distribution of chieftaincy titles, merited and unmerited. But these are not the immediate subjects of the present commentary.

Rather, it is the paradox of how the celebration of Valentine's Day, on February 14, seems to have overshadowed everything else that may be considered important. Very few people remembered the late Murtala Muhammed on February 13. But on February 14, there was such a frenzy among the young population - in Lagos, especially- as they celebrated The Feast of St. Valentine, or what is better known as Lovers' Day. This event has now become such an annual cultural fare among young Nigerians, with some young-at-heart older persons participating in it; so popular is February 14 on the calendar, that indeed it will be no exaggeration to say that it competes with better known occasions such as Christmas and Eid-el-Kabir. Whereas few people remembered Murtala Muhammed, there was so much excitement about the celebration of love. Every year, the ritual is nothing short of amusing. Even the House of Representatives rose early because it was Valentine's Day.

Who is St. Valentine? He is definitely not a Nigerian. Not one of our local cultural heroes. A certain Valentine was said to have been persecuted by the Roman Emperor Claudius II (268- 270 AD). There was also another Christian martyr known as Bishop Valentine of Teni. The Feast of St. Valentine, celebrated by the Catholic Church on February 14 is said to be in honour of these two Valentines. Other accounts indicate that more than two Saints Valentine exist in the records of the Catholic Church. But the celebration of the Feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 A.D by Pope Gelasius.

Among the Romans, February, the beginning of Spring was regarded as the month of purification, the fertility festival of Lupercalia was celebrated every February 15, the middle of the month was also considered the time of the year when birds mate and choose lovers. Thus, Valentine Day has its roots in both Catholic and ancient Roman traditions, with St. Valentine as the patron-Saint of this feast of love: the symbolism of which includes the expression of affection, the sharing of gifts, and the promotion of friendship and goodwill. Valentine's Day has become a global phenomenon and such a serious affair in Nigeria as part of the creeping homogenization of cultural taste induced by the media and the globalisation process.

But still there are differences in terms of how the occasion is celebrated in different parts of the world. In Kenya, violence resulting from the recent Presidential elections, has obviously pushed love into the background. In Saudi Arabia, the authorities were so irritated by the excitement over Lovers' Day that in the run-up to Valentine's Day, this year, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice banned the display and sale of red roses by florists and gift shops. Ordinarily on Valentine's day, lovers exchange gifts including chocolates, flowers (preferably red roses) cards, cakes, and other gifts. Nor is it everyone that celebrates Lover's Day who is happy. It is more a day for being loved, for feeling remembered, even lonely hearts take part in the celebrations. And the really lonely could feel left out.

Whatever may be the differences however, love remains one of the strongest emotions known to man. It is an enduring subject of written literature as seen in Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Foules, Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Romeo and Juliet etc. The landscape of romance and love is vast and attractive; it is marked by profound joy and inexplicable tragedy. Love is energetic; it is a potent force that moves the human imagination. Its celebration underscores the ritual of courtship and the wellspring of human desires.

Increasingly however, Valentine's Day, perhaps because of its Roman Catholic connections, could inflame religious passions or perhaps because of its association with the idea of romance and mating, could draw the ire of those who consider it the celebration of immorality. This much became an issue in Srinagar, India yesterday, when a Kashmiri Islamic women's group raided restaurants to prevent young Muslim couples from participating in Lover's Day which they described as anti-culture and anti-Islam. The women, Daughters of Faith, all covered from hand-to-toe-in black insisted that "Valentine's Day is a Western conspiracy to involve Muslims in vulgar activities".

But yesterday, in Nigeria, there were no such threats. Company executives besieged gift shops as they purchased items for their loved ones. By 2 p.m, a friend had phoned to complain about Valentine Traffic. I listened to one shop attendant in the Ikeja area complain about how 24 hours earlier the shop where she works was overwhelmed by the throng of lovers looking for gifts. Bakers made quick sales. The restaurants, including pepper soup joints were fully booked. Throughout the day, I ran into young persons who added a touch of red to their dresses, or were fully or partially clothed in red. Shops and offices paid homage to the idea of love by using the red motif to decorate their hallways. Even in some private schools, children were encouraged to don a combination of white and red, and give Valentine gifts to their classmates.

In the evenings, clubs organised parties for lovers. Human beings like to be loved and appreciated. The Holy Books, as well as ancient Sages, advise us to love not to hate and to "do unto others" as we would wish them "do unto us". But whereas Nigerians often talk about love, it is a concept that they do not understand. Valentine's Day is useful in Nigeria, more for the opportunity that it provides for making quick sales. It is an occasion for the flowering of entrepreneurship. The second, most compelling aspect of the celebration in Nigeria, is the inordinate emphasis on the idea of mating. Valentine's Day in Nigeria is specially consecrated for reckless sexuality, with the build-up ending in a vortex of dalliance.

Thus, those who celebrate love in Nigeria do so mostly for reasons of opportunism. Once a year, there is so much talk about love and as soon as February 14 is gone, or present desires had been satisfied, love returns to its locket as an abstraction in the Nigerian public space and as a mystery in relationships and marriages.. Nigeria is a country in need of the essence of love. There is too much hate, too much self-centredness, lack of goodwill, and lack of consideration for others. The spread of the religion of "I, me and myself" is at the root of Nigeria's underdevelopment. The leaders do not love the people, and the people do not love their leaders either. We are so underdeveloped because those in authority are not willing to do anything for anybody. Love is about giving and sharing. Nigerians do not know to give, they would rather take from the people and forcefully if they can.

As I watched the grand gestures of love put up by ordinary people, I shuddered at the capacity of our people to worship gods that they do not believe in and to promote causes in which they have no faith. Those who lack the capacity to remember their own heroes and martyrs should not speak of love. Those who are incapable of simple gestures of civility, of caring for others, or to even appreciate the kindness of others, can only speak of love in effervescent terms.

The same night that average Nigerians trooped to restaurants and other places in observance of the ritual of love, the Nigerian state released more victims into the unemployment market, and gave National Honours to many who are undeserving. Celebrating love in a season of dispossession is ultimately an act of indulgence, if not deception. Very few Nigerians have access to potable water or the regular supply of electricity. On Valentine's Day many Nigerian lovers had to rely on power generating sets to be able to see each other's faces. Across the country the roads are in a poor shape, the money meant for the construction, repair and maintenance of roads has been stolen by brazen public officials. The hospitals are ill-equipped. The prisons, like the mortuaries, are congested. One lady visited Nigeria from Rwanda - she complained about how Nigerian streets are so dirty and how uncivil the people are!

The people continue to groan and search for love, but not finding it, they invent their own plots, plots without nobility. I do not condemn their search for love though. Omnia vincet amor et nos cedamus amori ("love overcomes all things, let us too yield to love"). And so yesterday, on Valentine's Day, I also joined in the celebrations with a red bow tie, to show that unlike the Daughters of Faith, in Srinagar, India, I consider love harmless and without a tribal colour - East or West.