Today marks the beginning of the last quarter of the year, comprising September, October, November and December – otherwise known as the ember months. These are the crowning or capping months of every calendar year.This last four months of the year comes with special euphoria that connotes to Christmas festival.
Rightly or wrongly, many believe that these are fast-paced months. Some, superstitiously, believe that the ember months come with evil foreboding. What no one can deny, however, is the fact that road mishaps, banks and internet frauds, armed robbery and other criminal activities are usually on the high side during this period.
Expert’s explanation for the high rate of crime and accidents recorded during this period has to do with the frenzy and obsession to end the year on a note of grandeur and financially well-oiled celebration(s). In the bid to catch up with the Joneses, every Tom, Dick and Harry resort to both legitimate and illegitimate sources of generating additional income in readiness for the spending spree that usually characterize this period of the year.
Women of easy virtue also see this period as a season of boom for their sinful and dehumanizing trade, debasing themselves in order to make wealth, while swindlers and scammers throw their spanners to work with a view to defrauding as many victims as possible. Sadden still, our commercial drivers usually throw caution to the wind, overloading their vehicles and speeding with reckless abandon all in a bid to increase the number of trips in a day and rake in extra money during this period. The unfortunate outcome is usually increase in road mishaps and needless loss of human lives. These warped mindsets and extreme approaches to the ember months are unfortunate and condemnable.
However, this period ought to be viewed as one of stocktaking and evaluation of all activities within the last year. It ought to be a season of looking back to see how far one has fared vis-à-vis the targets one has set for the fading year. And, on the basis of such retrospective evaluation, what becomes expedient is some level of restrategizing to ensure that the set goals are achieved before the year winds up. This, certainly, can be done without recourse to criminality or illegitimacy.
It is indeed surprising that many people wait for the ember months to commence before they embark on a rush to get so many things done. This is an act of planlessness that is avoidable in the first place.
To this end, individuals and even organizations should resort to meticulous planning as well as set feasible goals at the dawn of every year as antidote to the needless fire-brigade approach to the end of the year.
On the other hand, security agencies, particularly the Police to ensure adequate security and a crime-free society during this period; the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) should evolve strategies that would reduce road mishap to the barest minimum.
More also, the rejuvenated Abia State Passengers Integrated Manifest Scheme (ASPIMS) by Govnor Okezie Ikpeazu under the Leadership of Sir. Kingsley Megwara must ensure that the team mounted at strategic positions in the road must leave up to their responsibility by timely rescuing accident victims during this period.
Abians and, by extension, Nigerians should realize that security is a collective responsibility. They should, therefore, collaborate with security agencies by volunteering useful information that would aid their operations and, more importantly, strive to live within the confines of the law throughout this season and beyond.
Above all, everyone must leave to see the ember months as every other months of the calendar year.
Ahamefula Israel, a Senior Advocate of Nigerian Students, writes from Uturu. e-mail:anyameleisrael@gmail.com.
