Just One Christmas Wish

"Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.”
― Gloria Steinem

I already know that if wishes were horses, beggars will ride but still it doesn’t stop me from having dreams and wishes after all it cost nothing to dream. I may never have been to UK for a summer trip, had a one on one encounter with my favorite celebrity or clinch the Pulitzer doesn’t mean I can’t dream about them from the comfort of my home. It takes nothing to dream and it was during one of my sojourn into dreamland, imagining things I would like for Christmas that I thought about Santa Claus.


We may not believe in Santa Claus in Nigeria but we have seen enough cartoons and movies of Santa for us to create our own Nigerian version, Father Christmas. Father Christmas unlike Santa doesn’t fly with reindeer and sleighs in the air to land through the chimney (well Nigerian houses don’t use chimneys anyway) to drop a gift in your socks while you are asleep.
However what obtains in Nigeria is you get to pay to attend Christmas parties to see some fat guy in Santa outfit handing out nylon wrapped gifts of books and pencils to kids (thank God I know better now).

Let’s put Father Christmas aside for a second, everybody has had a busy year both good and bad; at least I know I have from self discovery assignments to near death experiences not to forget the almighty ASUU strike that has kept all Nigerian students home for over five months. I decided therefore to act like Santa and ask everybody their wish for the year 2013 year gradually cruising to an end and believe me I had some really cool answers. Take a peek below:

Adedamola Dairo: For Damola, all he wishes for is money. According to him money solves all his problems, he says he needs a change of his entire wardrobe and that can only happen if he has enough money, just like me he also has the wish to go to the UK for vacation (I guess Santa has to grant mine first though after all I have been good and hardworking all through the year, my editor can attest to that).

Gbenle Omobolanle: Petite Bola has just one wish and unlike Damola and I wishing for a vacation in the UK, she wishes for a trip to Las Vegas with her boyfriend and perhaps have one of her family members tag along. Well in my mind’s eye all I can see is Vegas’ strippers and I hope if she gets her wish, she comes back home with her guy; maybe the family member tagging along is for watchdog purpose (just kidding).

Kalu Davids: Young and talented fashion designer Kalu Davids wishes for an iPad. In his words he says “I can’t wish for clothes and shoes or anything wearable because I stand for all of that already but an iPad is all I can dream of now.” I have seen some of his designs and wish he will push some of them my way while chasing his dream of an iPad (sad sigh; yet another wish for me).

Esther Adeniran: When I was chatting with this friend of mine on Instant Messaging platform Whatsapp and decided to ask her for her one Christmas wish, I wasn’t expecting it to be a reunion. She said her one wish will be to go back home and be reunited with her mum as they had a fall out earlier this year. This is one wish I fervently hope comes to reality.

Peter Francis: We all know Nigeria isn’t where it should be but still I wouldn’t want to run off to seek greener pastures elsewhere but obviously Peter doesn’t share my thoughts because for him he is fed up with all the things that seems to be wrong with Nigeria and if he had just one Christmas wish it will be to get out of the country and never come back.

Oluwafunmike Adebanjo: She is in the same boat with Peter because for her getting out of Nigeria is more than just a wish but has become a prayer to God. She said she has been praying to God to give her an opportunity to leave and that she is hopeful he will grant her wishes soon enough.

Ndianna Ikeh: One young man that surprised me however was Ndy who calmly said his one Christmas wish was for a better world where humans love each other with peace reigning everywhere. While his wish may sound sappy and corny, he insisted that that was all he wished for.

Ezekiel Idholo Jnr: With JAMB dashing the hopes of many students every year to secure admission into a Nigerian tertiary institution, Ezekiel wishes that he will be among the selected candidates sitting for next year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) to secure admission. His one Christmas wish is to be offered admission into the University of Lagos or Federal University of Technology, Owerri to study Industrial Chemistry. Well all I can say to that is I hope next year you won’t be wishing to be allowed to resume if ASUU decides to…well you know what I mean!

Now that you know my wish and a few others wish; share with us your one wish for this Christmas season, what will it be? I sign off with the words of world famous author Stephen King - “And people who don’t dream, who don’t have any kind of imaginative life, they must… they must go nuts. I can’t imagine that.”



Akinwale Akinyoade is National Diploma holder in Mass Communication from Yaba College of Technology and currently majors in English at the University of Lagos. He loves reading, writing and networking. Follow @gidigenius