BY VICTORIA NGOZI IKEANO
victoriangozii@gmail.com 08033077519
 
Happy new month…Wish you and family the best of this new month of August, 2026…. So rang out greetings across the length and breadth of our country as August arrived promptly, on Saturday, its first day. In this month we welcome special visitors. It is one that is packed with events, observances, commemorations, happenings that arrive only in August.  Among them are, August (women’s) meeting, August (rainy season) break/peak in southern and northern Nigeria respectively, harvest season, New Yam festival, numerous United Nations International Days.  August also heralds start of the adored European Football Leagues while primary and secondary school students settle down into their long vacation in August after end of school session around mid-July.
 
 One visitor is making a debut entry. It is the first time it is arriving in August and would probably be the last. Its August coming is an emergency, necessitated by circumstances due to force majeure, specifically a change in the 2027 electoral time table to avoid a clash with the all-important Ramadan fasting period. Campaigns for the much awaited 2027 presidential elections commence in August, August 17. No other month in the Gregorian calendar equals August in terms of high profile events and occurrences that happen in August.  You could say December rivals it. However, most events in December are linked to the Christmas festival. Long before advent of Christianity in Nigeria the New Yam festival had always been celebrated. It is about the oldest festival in our land and comes during onset of harvest season in August. In August new, fresh crops from the soil appear in markets. And in southern Nigeria August break sets in. This is a break from the raining season which peaks in June/July, restarts in September and gradually peters out by end of October when the dry/hot season commences. Apparently because of climate change, time for the August break is no longer predictable but it does arrive anyway. For northern Nigeria the first set of crops that do not need much rain, mainly egusi, are harvested by August. August is peak of the raining season in the north when other crops that require much rain are planted, essentially grains.  
 
Hitherto, the New Yam festival was associated with ‘’pagans’’, ‘’traditional worshippers’’.  If in referring to them as pagans, we mean that they did not ‘believe’ in God, we are wrong. It is just that our forebears like other ancient peoples on earth had a ‘limited’ recognition of the Almighty Creator and sought to approach Him in the way they saw that which they considered as the highest at the time. In accordance with the law of development, our recognition of Him proceeded step by step.    Beginning from our earth which is coarse matter, the broad outline of Creation upwards   is:  Ethereal matter – Substantiality – Spiritual Creation.  Ancient peoples were permitted to ‘see’ up to the realm of Substantiality where they  perceived the lords of the elementals (lords of the nature beings), whereby the concept of gods and goddesses cropped up in them. They regarded these as supreme beings, being the furthest they could ‘see’ and perceive.
 
Yam was/is considered as the highest crop of the soil. And so, ancient peoples, our ancestors instituted a festival whereby they brought before the Nature beings, harvests from the soil (symbolically yam) to thank the gods and goddesses in charge of these Nature beings for a bountiful harvest and besiege them to bless the soil for more bountiful harvest in the next season. Thereafter permission is given to start eating newly harvested yams, followed by feasting and festivities. It may be compared to the way we give thanks to God and ask for his blessing before eating any food.
 
However, our forbears erred when they viewed lords of the elementals as gods and ‘worshipped’ them through (distorted) earthly representation of nature beings. By doing so, they contravened the supreme commandment of God, which is, “Thou shall have no other gods but me”. This simply stipulates that we should not accord divine honours, veneration to no other (being or thing) than the Almighty Creator who created everything from the highest in primordial spiritual realm through the spiritual realm (heaven) down to this earth plane of coarse matter. Besides, lords of the elementals, nature beings are no more than little servants of God who make use of His Power for their works which is development of what we term Nature in their various elements which in turn make it possible for us to exist on earth. With extension of our spiritual knowledge, came the concept of One God. We now know that that there is only one God and one Power, primordial power that streams throughout the creations for all creatures therein, big and small. Additionally, gratitude belongs only to GOD to no other.
 
Alas, times have changed. For where previously, the Church viewed the new yam festival  as a pagan feast which Christians should not associate with, it has now come to the realisation that it is no more than a festival of thanksgiving to God for harvests of the soil while also praying to Him for his continued blessing on the land for future bumper harvests. They now participate in it officially. Christian women of the Catholic and Anglican faiths are about rounding off their yearly two-day August meeting during which talks are given on some important topics. It kicked off with church services. August has several United Nations international days.  It starts with the Breastfeeding Week that runs from the first to the seventh day of August. This is to inculcate in us the importance of feeding newly born babies  exclusively with natural breast milk in the first months of their earth lives so they can grow into healthy infants/children protected against  illnesses. What is natural is best. Other noteworthy commemorative days include: International Youth Day; International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition; International Day for People of African Descent; International Day for Victims of Terrorism.
 
The football season resumes this August. Millions of Nigerian football fans will join their counterparts worldwide to  closely track their clubs’ performances in the five top rated European Football Leagues. They are English Premier League (England), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Ligue Un (France) and Bundesliga (Germany). They will also be keeping an eye on leagues in other countries in which Nigerian footballers are involved. Those that can afford it are already renewing their cable television subscriptions and increasing their data subscriptions to be able to watch live transmissions of the matches. Others are setting aside monies to see live games at viewing centres. Sports section of our media  (radio, television, newspapers, online)  shall now be dominated by European league news; just as they will now be talking points at pepper soup joints,  beer parlors and majalisas  This is a period when Mummy Junior has a kind of running battle with Junior as he often sneaks out of the house unnoticed to go watch  live premier league matches.