There are some things that should stay in 2017 and not crossover into the New Year. These are five of them.
The year 2017 was heralded with much pomp, pageantry and great hopes of better things to come.
But as it turned out, some things did not turn out as was expected and as we are set to welcome 2018, there are some things we do not hope to witness again.
1. Badoo Cult Gang
The ritual cult gang, Badoo, did not start in 2017 but during the year, their activities assumed a different dimension and they went on a rampage, killing, maiming and causing so much havoc.
Though most of the dastardly acts were recorded in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State, it is not something we would wish to see happen again in 2018.
The gang is so deadly that they would wipe out a whole family without remorse. Their method of attack is not only ingenious but wicked as they would use a grinding stone to smash the heads of their victims after which they would wipe the brain membranes and blood in handkerchiefs.
They were reports that they sold the brains and blood-soaked handkerchief to ritualists for as much as N500,000.
As much as the police and other security agencies tried their best to curb the menace of the cult gang, they kept attacking innocent people, even going as far as invading places of worships to carry out the attacks.
2. Blaming the PDP
When the ruling All Progressives Congress [APC] was campaigning in 2015, they made various promises and vowed to take Nigeria to Eldorado.
But for two years, all they keep doing is to blame the past government of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP]. They go about this so shamelessly that they forget that they were given the mandate by Nigerians to clear the mess perpetrated by the PDP.
Every perceived ill in the country was blamed on the PDP, even when the APC made wrong policies, they would immediately put their own inadequacies on the PDP.
Instead of sitting up and strategizing on how to take the country out of the woods, they continued to blame their failures on the PDP.
Nigerians have gotten tired of the complains and the blame games and in 2018, we definitely do not want the blames to continue.
3. Recession
A few months after the APC came into power, they made some economic blunders by enacting policies that were not favourable to Nigerians and foreign investors.
Within months, the country was plunged into a recession that threatened to bring the country on its heels. Things became so hard for the common man that even feeding families became a tough task.
Companies shut down in their droves while many Nigerians lost their jobs almost on a daily basis. But thank God we are gradually coming out of the worst recession ever witnessed in the country but in 2018, Nigerians would wish that the bad patch has gone for good.
4. Party Defections
2017 witnessed so many defections from politicians who decamped to the ruling All Progressives Congress from the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party.
Whenever these politicians decamped, they would come up with one excuse or the other but it was quite clear most of them did it for their selfish ends.
Many of them who were indicted on one allegation or the other promptly defected to the APC in the belief that their sins would be forgotten: and most times, they were.
They suddenly become saints who had seen the light, thereby depriving the country of a vibrant opposition.
Come 2018, we are sincerely hoping that the era of party defections would be a thing of the past. We do not want to continue witnessing such defections again.
5. Boko Haram Attacks
Before coming into power, the APC had promised to take the fight to the insurgent sect, Boko Haram and defeat them in a jiffy.
Well, they took the fight to the terrorists and after a few months, Information Minister, Lai Mohammed declared that they had been technically defeated.
At another time, the military came out to tell Nigerians that the terrorists had been defeated in real and chased out of their stronghold in the Sambisa Forest in Borno State.
But despite these, they are still attacking and bombing what the Army keep telling us are soft targets.
In 2018, we pray that we would no more witness attacks by the deadly Boko Haram sect. We have had enough.