Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most that has made it possible for evil to triumph. – Emperor Haile Selassie, born Tafari Makonnen (1891-1974, ruler of Ethiopia for 44 years)

ALL signs are there that we will have a challenging year. From the economy to the political predictions about 2015, we are only moments away from vital decisions about our lives. If we are not careful, they would be made without any contributions from us.

The New Year begins, with peoples’ high expectations. They dream their New Year ambitions that are mostly built on nothing.

It is an annual ritual that helps brush aside failuf the past year, but does little else. The beginning of every year affords deep reflection on the past and the future.

To experience positive change requires serious planning, concentration, focus and sacrifices. Many want to begin a New Year on a fresh slate. Great support is required from governments’ policies for peoples’ plans to translate to reality. We must hold governments more accountable this year, it is an individual responsibility.

It is governments’ role to ensure their policies and programmes benefit the people. Governments should provide enabling environment for the healthy growth of the nation and its inhabitants. These are high hopes.

Anxiety over de-regulation of prices of petroleum products remains. It is a move that would alter many calculations whenever it is made this year. The predictions are dreadful because all the promised savings from last year’s increase have not been utilised in building infrastructure that would have lessened individual generation of electricity, for instance.

Last year, like the past three years, was lost to insecurity in some parts of the country.  Government’s management of the security challenges is  at most pendulous. It must do more.

We are a year away from the 100th anniversary of amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates which became Nigeria in 1914. It is a significant spot in the nation’s political history. What would improve ahead of the celebrations?

Politicians are bickering. Whether at the National Assembly, where they should tuck in their egos and get some work done or in the parties where discipline has broken down, the quest for power continues, sometimes dangerously. It could worsen as they ponder 2015.

Nigeria’s stability and the successes of its citizens this year, would largely be determined by the outstanding matters of 2012. Possibly the most crucial of them is security, especially government’s shoddy handling of it.

We wish our readers a happier and more prosperous New Year.