The Christmas holidays have provided us with the opportunity to reunite with loved ones -- families, friends, neighbours, village and country folks -- and, if possible, visit a number of places. We have dined and wined, and indulged in all sorts of acts and deeds that we would ordinarily not indulge in. It is fine. It makes life more colourful and adventurous.

Many of us have had to borrow or put out ourselves to extreme risks and agony in order to meet the demands or temptations of the season. To some of us in that unfortunate category, we may have realised that the images and expectations we drew with our minds have not necessarily translated into realities. Some of us are even disappointed and devastated. It is fine. We cannot always be right with our decisions and choices. There has not been a mathematical school for decisions and choices. Cast away those guilty thoughts and punitive feelings, and step into 2019 with the positives of the season.

Some of us have lost loved ones to illness, accident and fatal mistakes. For some of us with such infernal experiences, the temptation is there to question God or some self-created cosmic authorities. Please, don't go there. Death and tragedies are not bound by time or season.

Secondly, if you lift yourself and look around, you will notice there is no friend, neighbour or acquaintance who has not experienced -- at one time or the other -- what you are now going through. Thank God and walk to 2019 with the hope that blessings will grow from the ashes of your loss.

Many of us do not even care to know or enquire about the essence of the season. We are celebrating because it is in our DNA to celebrate when others are celebrating. If you ask me, all is never lost in ignorance and free spiritedness. After all, ignorance is sometimes blissful.

For those of us who seized the opportunity of the season to touch or influence others positively, 2019 is another opportunity for you to further drag mankind from the path of selfishness -- a disease that is at the base of all iniquities and perversions.

In one word, 2019 is a gift to you. Please, make the best of it. Your one good deed may be all the world needs.

Sam Kargbo (LL.B; LLM; BL) is presently the Principal Partner of Jackson, Kargbo & Associates with offices in Lagos and Abuja. He is a prolific writer and a respected personality in most of the intellectual platforms and fora in Nigeria. He is a regular guest to many television hosts, and has been a weekly newspaper columnist, as well as member of the editorial Board of the Daily Independent since 2001. He also writes for Daylight online newspaper. Sam Kargbo is a regular contributor to two of Nigeria’s foremost intellectual platforms- the Nigeria Village Square and nigeriansinamerica.com. He has published law articles in Academic and Practice journals spanning several areas of the law. Sam Kargbo is a recipient of the prestigious Distinguished University of Benin Alumnus award, an award he received along with notable personality as Raji Fashola, the Former Governor of Lagos State and now Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has also invested in schools, movies and music. He is a Legal Adviser to many blue chip companies and NGOs in Nigeria. He is a philanthropist who is commonly referred to as Uncle Sam in social circles in Nigeria.

Sam Kargbo is married to Stella Samuel Kargbo with whom he has two sets of twins.