So, here we are. In 2023. For the first time since 2019 New Year’s Eve, Rwandans across the country got to watch the night sky aglow with all the colors of the rainbow courtesy of the hundreds of fireworks that burst above them. Enjoying the fireworks with my family, I thought about all the things that we've gone through; firstly as a nuclear family and secondly, as a larger Rwandan one.

There has been COVID-19. We’ve dealt with insecurity and loss of life in the south and west. As a nation, whose vast majority work on the land, the effects of climate change have reverberated across almost every farmer’s household. To make matters worse, international conflicts have increased fuel, fertilizer and grain prices. I mean, to be honest, sometimes it feels like a miracle that we are still here. But not only are we still here, we are alive and well.

Fingers crossed, we are on the other side of the pandemic. Not only that, due to the colossus that is our leadership, we are leaving the pandemic with a stronger health system than before. And with the BioNTech mRNA vaccine production plant that’s currently on its way to Kigali, we are better placed to combat future pandemics.

Furthermore, while we aren’t out of the woods just yet, we are seeing signs of life in our business and farming community. Production is increasing in both sectors, and despite all the challenges, we aren’t seeing the flood of auctions and foreclosures that could have been. There is real resilience there.

I saw this resilience in the faces of the young people who joyously welcomed in 2023 at the Kigali Convention Center-Kigali Heights roundabout.

Despite everything that was going on in their day to day, these bright-eyed young women and men were celebrating the new year like their very lives depended on it. Why? Probably because a new year represented to them a new hope. Hope that this new year will be better than the last. A hope that this year’s resolutions, made at the stroke of midnight, would take. A belief that this time, when they declared "a new year, a new me”, it wouldn't just be a WhatsApp status on their iPhone but rather a fundamental change in the way they do things.

I’ve been thinking about my own new year resolutions. And to be honest, I’ve only come up with one; ‘try not to repeat the mistakes of 2022’. I think that this resolution is one that those in the corridors of power should emulate. Let’s not keep making the same errors over and over again.

Let’s not create a moral panic because of someone’s risqué fashion choice. And certainly don’t arrest and prosecute them. That’s a goal you don’t need to concede. Let’s stop shutting down spaces because they are deemed too 'noisy'. Please, all those concerned, finalise and publicise the noise pollution guidelines as soon as humanly possible. Carting off sound systems during events surrounding, for example, the BAL (Basketball Africa League) finals isn’t a goal we need to concede.

Let’s stop putting taxpayer monies in poorly thought and poorly executed projects. No more building roads without roundabouts and bridges that will be washed away in the rainy seasons. Those are own goals we need to leave in 2022.

Can we have no more resignations because of drunk driving as well as fewer prosecutions because of bribery and influence peddling on the part of our leaders? And lastly, can institutions be more responsive to the people they serve, without the need to tag the President on Twitter?

The writer is a socio-political commentator