Amid rising insecurity in Nigeria, many citizens express fear and frustration on Facebook, where sensitive conversations often spiral into extreme suggestions. A recent post comment stood out for normalizing offensive self-defence imagery in a family-centred season: “I want to reiterate again, pls in ALL your Christmas shoppings… ensure to include Christmas cutlass, guns, and other defensive items in your hampers.”
While the use of “cutlass” mirrors local slang for machete-like tools, and the mention of guns echoes public disappointment with security lapses, embedding weapons into festive shopping rhetoric blurs the line between advocacy for safety and celebration of violence. Christmas symbolizes peace, hope, and community—not harm.
Security concerns are real, but jokingly or seriously recommending offensive weapons as holiday gifts shifts the focus from constructive dialogue to harmful normalization, feeding a culture where violence feels like the default solution, not the last resort.
LINKS
https://x.com/OzorNdiOzor/status/1995517993736888448
