After missing an opportunity to travel to Germany in November last year, Bode Ojo, a Lagos-based businessman has not found life easy. He lost his capital and other life savings in the process of looking for greener pasture overseas.
Seating in a church on December 31st night last year, the young man was among many others who did the usual New Year resolution ritual…not to do this or that, to be serious with one thing or the other. He resolved to look inwards, try other opportunities opening up here than spending huge to be a slave in the Germany.
How truly are you going to keep your resolutions? This was the question his mother fielded to him on his return from the midnight service. He was not sure of the resolutions living up to the next month and so also many others that turned new leaf at the last minute of last year.
Barely a month into the new year, over 80 percent of people who made one or two vows for the new year hardly live up to the resolutions. The rate at which people fail in keeping their resolutions, calls for the need to ask why they make resolutions in the first place. If one cannot keep a simple rule, why promise to keep the 10 commandments.
So many husbands promised God or whatever they believe in that they will be better husbands that will not beat or cheat on their wives. And likewise wives to be better wives and mothers this year. Sadly, many of them are going back to their past.
Some say that resolutions often time, do not work because of the situation in which they are taken. They are particularly done at the last day of the year and when one is sober and full of expectations in the coming year.
One of the reason for living short of the realities of the resolutions, according to Ojo is “To draw God’s hand, and whether at home, in the church or mosque, one needs to be sober and truthful for once, but on leaving God’s presence, the temptations and challenges become fiercer, and naturally it is what you do not want to do that come your way.”
At the end of every year, even atheists do one form of prayer or the other in order to prepare for the coming year, taking stock of their activities in the passing year to forestall their mistakes from reoccurring, and planning for the coming one.
But some others think that most people that make resolutions are those seeking to climb the ladder of success in life. Maurice Emehor, a sociology lecturer, notes that resolutions are meaningless for those who have arrived because their problem is not how to, but where to spend goodtime. “You will see few of these people in churches and mosques on any December 31 nightbecause they look for hot holiday spots to usher in the New Year in their own unique way.” says Emehor.
But Stella Ogho, a doctor and deaconess, notes that New Year resolution is necessary thing to do because of its benefits. For her, the heart forgives then, one thinks clearer and mends his/her mistakes. “Some broken homes see reasons to come together. Well, I promised to spend more time with my family this year, and I am already doing that. My husband appreciates the change and hopes it continues”, she says.
The inability to keep with the resolutions, according to her, is an evidence of the imperfection of the human nature. “They really do not last for long except for those that are strong-willed. Patients even take doctor’s advice more serious than their resolutions. But I will do better in mine because it is affecting my family”, she assures.
To keep resolutions, the gynecologist says people should be objective in their personal assessments and should take on issues they can handle easily than those that require extra effort or spiritual advice to breakthrough.
In the wind of the current change mantra in Nigeria, she thinks if government at all levels is objective and take on issues it can handle, there will be no need to waste money during campaign because the electorates can easily assess them based on what they have done and not on campaign promises.
But while that may sound good, Victor Eboh, a clearing and forwarding agent, rhetorically asks if law enforcement agents ever make resolutions, especially not to collect illegal fees. “That will be a difficult thing to do because superiors can threaten to sack if their subordinates fail to deliver their daily targets. The superiors also can be transferred to dry zones if they fail to deliver to their superiors too. So, it is a circle that greases corruption, but it takes firm resolution to curb it”, Eboh explains.
However, psychologists, sociologists and even the clergy assure that people can live up to their resolutions if they are determined to do so. “If the resolution is doctor’s advice or court ruling most people will obey it. It is just that it is a personal thing and people personalise whether to live up to it or not. But at the long run, failure to live up to it affects the person, the organisation and the country directly or indirectly”, the sociologists conclude.
OBINNA EMELIKE
