Season of holiday: Why should all of us get trapped?

No doubt, this is a period of holidaying when people and families embark on lot of travels for Christmas and the New Year celebrations.

Agreed! It gives a lot of joy to join families and relatives this time in the year for these celebrations, but, should all of us get trapped because we want to celebrate?

Have you considered the financial pressure this time because people want to travel, not only that the cost of transport particularly travelling to the East is beginning to go up, most major transporters have run short of seats.

“Our vehicle has been fully booked up to December 29, a ticketing officer told a desperate passenger who want to buy ticket .”

May be, many have forgotten in a haste what happened on January I 2012 when some people who travelled to far distances for Christmas got stranded in the New Year following the increase in the pump price of crude oil, leading to scarcity, hike in transport and nationwide strike.

As a result of this, many eat deeply into their savings or encountered huge debts to return to their base and also to survive in January. That period was challenging for many individual and homes.

Now that it’s clearer about what could happen to our finances now and in the wake of the New Year, should we not take precaution on spending as a result of holidays and travelling?

A traveler who had bought six seats for his family from one of the transport companies said “we are travelling to Owerri to celebrate the Christmas and to attend to important family functions”

According to him, a major reason for the travel was to mark the marriage golden jubilee anniversary of their parents, and that is why I am taking my whole family, the traveler said.

For me, I don’t think I can spend my Christmas and New Year outside my ancestral home, so, I make sure I travel for the season no matter the cost, another traveler said.

This reason will be the response of many Easterners who generally travel home during Christmas and New Year, having become part of them to use the period for family and village meetings; traditional and white weddings; masquerade dance, launching and fund raising for community development as well as chieftaincy conferment among other programmes.