By EBUKA UKOH
Every new year carries a promise. But some carry an instruction. The year 2026 arrives not as a whisper but as a charge. It asks a simple question. What are you spreading? Ideas spread. Attitudes spread. Courage spreads. Fear spreads. Excellence spreads. Neglect spreads.
A nation does not change only through policies. It changes through what multiplies quietly in homes, classrooms, offices, streets and minds. This year calls us to spread what strengthens life. Ancient wisdom captured this truth long before social media made virality fashionable. In the Bible’s book of Genesis, the language of growth appears again and again.
To spread abroad meant to increase in every direction. To grow until one becomes great. To fill lands with what one carries. Those words did not speak of noise. They spoke of presence. They described a force that multiplies because it carries life.
That same idea appears in the parable of the leaven bread. A small element introduced into ordinary dough changes everything. Not through volume, but through influence. It cannot be seen, yet it reshapes the whole. This is not about religion. It is about patterns. What enters a system will reproduce itself.
This is the year to decide what enters you. If resentment enters, resentment spreads. If discipline enters, discipline spreads. If honesty enters, honesty spreads. If excellence enters, excellence spreads.
Nigeria has suffered from the multiplication of the wrong things. Over the past year, Nigerians have watched prices rise faster than wages, insecurity stretch deeper into communities, and public trust thin down across institutions. They did not happen overnight. They grew because certain habits, tolerances and silences were allowed to spread.
No nation collapses suddenly. It drifts when the wrong things multiply quietly. Corruption spreads because it is tolerated. Insecurity spreads because neglect spreads first. Hopelessness spreads because responsibility withdraws. But the same law that multiplies harm also multiplies healing. Spreading is not noise. It is consistency. It is how character becomes culture.
This year asks you to spread courage in spaces that reward silence. Spread competence in systems that excuse mediocre performance. Spread truth where lies have settled comfortably. Spread dignity where people have been taught to accept less.
Spreading does not require a platform. It requires alignment. A teacher spreads order in a classroom. A trader spreads fairness at the market stall. A civil servant spreads accountability at a desk. A parent spreads values at the dinner table. A student spreads curiosity in a study group.
No one is too small to be a multiplier. A single teacher who insists on punctuality in a rural classroom can change a generation’s sense of order. A shop owner who refuses to cheat can reset trust on an entire street. A parent who listens can interrupt cycles of fear in a home. These are not small acts. They are seeds.
The most dangerous belief is that impact requires influence. Influence follows integrity. Systems change when enough people change what they permit and what they practice.
We have entered a year that favours growth. But growth is neutral. It multiplies whatever it finds. So choose deliberately. Spread discipline instead of excuses. Spread learning instead of shortcuts. Spread responsibility instead of complaint. Spread peace instead of panic. Spread hope that is anchored in action, not slogans.
You may not control the nation. But you control what enters your life. And what enters you will spread. This is not motivational language. It is social law. Cultures rise because values multiply. Societies fall because negligence multiplies. The future of Nigeria will not be decided only by budgets and elections. It will be decided by what spreads in everyday conduct.
So, 2026 is the year of spreading. Spread what makes life stronger. Spread what makes people better. Spread what makes tomorrow safer than today. Because whatever you release into your space will not stop with you. And this year, it matters more than ever what you choose to multiply.
May 2026 find your hands planting what strengthens life, and your days multiplying what will outlive you.
• Mr Ukoh, an alumnus of the American University of Nigeria, Yola, and PhD student at Columbia University, wrote from New York.
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