Tai Solarin, Nigeria’s under-celebrated educationist,
social critic and visionary reformer, wrote a newspaper article 55 years ago to
usher in 1964. He simply titled the essay, May
Your Road Be Rough. It was the great man’s prayer that the going should be
tough and rough for his compatriots during the year.
Hardly a wish to say Amen to by millions who were in
churches across Nigeria and worldwide to usher in the year 2019. In his days,
as it still is in our age, Solarin realized the controversy his position would
generate. So, early in the write-up he allayed his readers’ fears. He wasn’t
wishing them evil, he averred.
“I am not cursing you;” he said. “I am wishing you what I
wish myself every year. I therefore repeat, may you have a hard time this year,
may there be plenty of troubles for you this year!” If fellow citizens didn’t
know how to respond to this strange salutation on New Year’s Day, the
Ikenne-born writer offered this counsel: ‘’ If you are not so sure what you
should say back, why not just say, ‘Same to you’? I ask for no more.’’
