The Socio-Cultural Context of Yuletide Tragedies in Nigeria

Abstract

The fear that looms in the air and the calamity that lucks in the corner during each yuletide in Nigeria has called for attention. Nigerians start and spend a year hopefully and in relaxation of mind, but when the yuletide draws close, they become uneasy, frightened, extremely conscious and unusually religious for fear of the unknown. This is because the yuletide is always characterized with tragedies like countless road crashes/accidents, increased crime rate in form of armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom and so on. Many reasons might have been given to explain these recurrent tragedies during the yuletide in Nigeria, but there seems to be a different view to this. Therefore, this paper attempts to analyze the socio-cultural context of these yuletide tragedies in Nigeria. Extended family system, culture of merry-making, social materialism, social comparison and competitions etc were identified as the background causes of these yuletide tragedies in the country. However, a Redefinition of Social Value and Relevance, Review of the Extended Family System, the Creation of Job opportunities as well as the Alleviation of Poverty in the Nigerian society, were recommended as Way Out.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n7p165