BEVERLY HILLS, September 01, (THEWILL) – As the world enters the ember months – September, October, November and December – in this feature article, Jude Obafemi examines the significance of the period to Nigerians and what it portends.
It is September 1st.
This begins the last few months of the year. In Nigeria, it is often referred to as the start of the ‘Ember Months’, the four months of the year with -ember endings (the odd one out being ‘October’). Their use is so widespread that in January this year, the Oxford University Press which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary added the expression (ember months), as one of 29 new specifically Nigerian English words, to the update of its collection.
These months bring a year-ending mood to Nigerians with the nostalgic feel of celebratory festivities and yuletide revelries. But, there is a dark dimension to the ember months.
It is a period that relatively sees an upsurge in criminal activities in the country. Armed robbery, bank robbery, the snatching of cars on the highways, the ambushing of travellers and kidnappings all see sharp escalations about this time. There is also the incessant outbreaks of fire incidents. Road accidents of varying degrees of ghastliness are often witnessed as well.
This is not trivialised by the government agency in charge of road safety. The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) regularly holds reach-out programmes and information outreaches during these months to counsel road users and vehicle owners about respecting speed limits, following traffic laws and observing general appropriate road etiquette to prevent what is typically observed to be a bloody period.
And they have good reason to provide these warnings. Road transport data monitored during the period show a higher percentage of fatal crashes have occurred in the last quarter of the year in Nigeria. Mostly, the statistics reveal that December is the deadliest month of the year, recording the highest accidents, year on year.
It is this and related phenomenon that has made these months petrifying to not a few. And, as with most other things Nigerian, there is a spiritual dimension to it. The ember months appear to put religiously sensitive Nigerians on the edge. Because the ember months are believed to be purveyors of mishaps, there is a sense of fear about the allusion that evil forces, powers and principalities converge as the year winds down to wreak havoc on the world. It is partly founded on the belief that the devil is out to get those who may have slipped through the cracks and avoided evil earlier in the year before the year runs out. He wants to make sure certain people do not make it to the next year. So entrenched in the subconscious is this belief that these months arrive with and admixture of fear and the anxiety of imminent danger in the minds of many a Nigerian.
Therefore, it is commonplace to have church activities that are centred on the theme of warding off the evil that comes with the ember months. Crusades, vigils, processions, the blessing and anointing of special items that can prevent the holders from the carnage of these months are all part of the spiritual individual’s arsenal to survive the horrors of the ember months. In congregating for these purposes, the congregants, following the lead of their shepherd (pastor, priest, GO, bishop, apostle, prophet), declare war on ‘blood-sucking powers of the underworld’, the kingdom of the occult, the altar of darkness, those who desire the blood of the children of God in the realm of the spirit for evil purposes. Prayers are intensified to curtail the looming potency of evil.
With a packed programme of events like these, the churches are filled to overflowing as believers in the ominous import of the ember months throng to avail themselves of the spiritual cover they believe is required to see out these dark months and welcome the fresh blessings the coming year carries for them and everything that concerns them.
However, there are those who do not buy into the spiritualisation of the ember months.
They argue that the statistics that show ghastly accidents also reveal an uptick in vehicular movements amidst the surge in socio-economic activities nationwide during the period. On the average, accidents will also spike as people take to the roads to travel for celebrations with their loved ones. It is a time when more people have the leisure and luxury of travelling and the factors that combine to make it dangerous such as dilapidated roads, brake failure, refusal to abide by traffic rules, violation of speed limits by greedy commercial vehicle operators in a hurry to multiply their trips around the period and as such are not mindful of ruined roads, their faulty vehicles or need for rest and sleep, treacherous overtaking all combine to give the months a more sinister bearing than should be the case.
33.86% of road accidents in the ember month period, according to data by the FRSC, are as a result of speed limit violation alone, without taking loss of control, dangerous driving and bad roads into account. This has led to the position some hold that the law enforcement is lackadaisical in this area and should share part of the blame. Some hold that those who ought to prevent these accidents by making sure traffic offenders are brought to book will rather look the other way if these offenders grease their palms with “something for Christmas”.
Increase in the number of people travelling at a time together with increased vehicular movements inter- and intra-state will, on the average, result in increased accidents without appropriating evil elements to the calculation. This is the argument made against the mythical thinking of the ember months.
The case is also made that the upturn in fire outbreaks in the ember months is attributable to the dryness that is natural at the time. The air is dryer as are other combustible items around. With gradual subsiding of annual rainfall and the encroachment of the Harmattan, the conditions are ripe to encourage a chain reaction friendly for fire.
Against the increase in criminal activities, the argument is based on data from the Nigeria Police Force. They hold that based on information available to them, the attribution of increased rate of crime to the ember months period cannot be substantiated as crime occurs during the period at about the same frequency as it does all year round. The need to lavishly celebrate the end-of-year season in a way that is not commensurate with one’s earnings may force the hands of criminally-minded persons to engage in untoward acts but the period still witnesses as much crime as any other time of the year. There is also the opportunistic element of the criminal mind-set which believes that the celebratory mood of the period makes many Nigerians relax and let their sense of security lapse. Often, some media reports over-sensationalise their reporting of crime at the period. Yet, that does not make it the most criminal time of the year, the statistics show.
However, the need to be cautious is never out of style. Or of time. Whether one believes in the spiritual dimension and its ominous view of these months or not, whichever lane you fall on in the divide, whether you think it a myth or a representation of the facts, it pays to exercise the most caution in one’s affairs. At all times, January to December.
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