By Muyiwa Adetiba

I love the thought of a New Year. I love the notion that the good, the bad and the ugly of the past year are behind me and I can start on a new slate. It’s a form of closure and I love it. I also like the feeling of having a blank page, a white canvass to play with. I love the energy of the first few days as I try to plan the year and luxuriate on the purity of my vast, virgin canvass. In many ways, it is like a new birth.

Unfortunately, birth precedes death as surely as day precedes night.
Since the way of nature is the way of life, then a New Year also serves to warn us of lurking death.

Every New Year day means we are one year older—irrespective of what time of the year we are born—and thus nearer the grave. It also means, for those afraid of aging, an extra number they would rather do without. For the tardy and careless, it means time is running out on the things they have left undone.

Many of these are illusions because life is a continuum really and there is no actual break either in the physical or the spiritual at midnight. One second leads to another and an incident is usually a consequence of an earlier action. The consequences of what you do on December 31 will follow you into January 1. So the calendar we follow is man made and has no bearing on nature. People will achieve what they are meant to achieve and die when their time is up irrespective of calendar. You can also get a grip on your life at any time of the year.

The knowledge of the latter is probably the reason many of us don’t take our New Year resolutions serious and even vacillate on life changing decisions. Many for example, know the consequences of smoking yet indulge in it long after the lung has been impaired. Many diabetics know they have to change their life styles if they don’t want their organs damaged yet many are in denial and continue to
indulge in the very things that caused the illness in the first place.

So for as long as we have time, we will continue to indulge. Even if we were told that we would have five years to live if we didn’t change our lifestyles, we probably would want to indulge for two or three
years while hoping for a miracle. But our reactions would be different if we were told we had six months or a year to go. I have known people who stopped a life-long habit of smoking when faced with a grim ultimatum. I have seen alcoholics who never thought they could stop drinking stop after the liver had collapsed and were faced with the reality of death. So the first thing most people who are given a short time to live do is to stop whatever the cause of the illness is if it is still possible—they would probably spend the rest of their time on earth wondering why they did not stop earlier. Then they would proceed to put their houses in order.

Many, in a bid to make eternity, would reach out to those they had wronged and try to forgive those who had wronged them—I know one highly placed person who called his close friends and apologised for not helping them as much as he could have when he was in power. Many of course would become extremely religious and spend time trying to make restitutions for the sins of a life time. It is at this time that many would realise the futility and vanity of the things they had spent a life time coveting and the lives and friendships they had ruined in the process. Most would willingly give up most of these possessions to gain a couple of years more.

The attitude of a nation is not very different from that of an individual except that it is usually worse. When experts predict that the lifestyle of a particular country is likely to lead to ruination or disintegration, that country, in most cases, is in denial. The leaders will call those experts the agents of doom. A book ‘Why Nations Fail’ was published late last year and instantly became an international best seller. It was instructive to note from the book, that most nations fail, not because of lack of knowledge, but because of the unwillingness of the leaders to make the necessary changes.

Many are reluctant to sacrifice their today for the tomorrow of their children.

Nigeria had always known that the economic path they were following could yield to economic disaster; that depending on a mono product without building an industrial base would eventually spell trouble. We knew, or must have known, that the worsening security, the worsening poverty, the undue emphasis on ethnic and religious politics at the expense of competence could destroy the country.

Now we are in 2015, the year many observers predicted Nigeria would become a failed State if we didn’t change the way we do business. The signs are glaring even to the most optimistic. But because they are glaring, they can be averted even at this eleventh hour. It is obvious that the way we conduct the forth coming elections will make or mar the country. I am therefore appealing to INEC to stand up and save Nigeria by conducting a credible and very transparent election. It is easier to take, even for the do-or-die politicians, when the people have spoken clearly with their votes in a credible manner. I am appealing to the security agencies to think of Nigeria and ensure a non partisan policing. This will help prevent people from taking laws into their hands. I am appealing to the judiciary not to play one side against the other but to interpret the electoral laws fairly and equitably. I am appealing to the media to focus on the issues affecting Nigeria and avoid overheating the polity. I also wish the media can come up with credible opinion polls so that the nation and indeed the whole world can gauge the popularity of each candidate across the country before the election. That way, there will be little
surprise on election day. Finally, I am appealing to candidates, especially the incumbent not to abuse the instruments of power and to rein in their foot soldiers. No single person’s ambition is worth the
collapse of a country.