Cheers To 2026

A defiant Nigerian toast to survival, hardship, new taxes, and hope in 2026.

We raise our glasses, not because it was easy,
but because we are still standing,
backs bent by inflation,
pockets lighter, spirits stubborn.
The past year spoke in hard lessons,
and Nigeria made sure we heard every word.

2025 did not pet us.
Fuel prices jumped without warning,
light became a privilege, not a promise,
and salaries arrived late,
looking ashamed of themselves.
Still, we showed up.
That alone deserves applause.

We survived queues that tested faith,
data that finished before the conversation began,
transport fares that felt like extortion,
and food prices that turned cooking into strategy.
We laughed through memes
because crying is expensive.

To the nights NEPA disappeared without goodbye,
to mornings powered by generators and grit,
to dreams postponed, not cancelled,
to prayers said in traffic, in keke, in silence.
We stumbled, yes,
but we did not sit down to die.

Cheers to the people we outgrew,
and the lies we finally stopped believing.
Some hustles paid, others wasted our youth.
Some doors closed because corruption held the keys,
others because we learned to knock with sense.
Growth is not gentle.

Now 2026 is knocking,
carrying a new tax law under its arm,
asking more from pockets already stretched thin.
They say it is reform.
We say we have heard that song before.
Still, we will adjust.
We always do.

Because Nigerians bend, but we do not break.
We recalculate, we improvise, we endure.
We stretch one naira into tomorrow
and still find room for laughter.
Survival is our second language.

This year, we choose discipline over noise,
clarity over chaos,
wisdom over borrowed lifestyles.
We will work like history is watching,
and plan like hardship might return unannounced.

So lift your glass, cracked or clean.
To strength that refuses to expire.
To joy that survives policy and pressure.
To grace that keeps showing up uninvited.

Here’s to 2026.
May it test us less,
teach us faster,
and meet us prepared.
If not,
we will survive it anyway.
Cheers.