THE way our President, Governors of the PDP, major opposition parties, eminent, perennial actors and fixers in the political system are running around in pursuit of 2015, you would think our democratic process is all about elections.

THE charade around the conduct and fate of an Assistant Director in the Federal Civil Service who exercises responsibility as Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdurrasheed Maina appears set to continue.

THE planned merger of three or four parties is a major development in the nation’s current political disposition. Whether it lives up to its billing as the most significant development since 1999, or it falls flat on its face in the next few weeks will be determined by many issues and challenges.

PEOPLE who have taken ringside seats in the on-going bruising fight between President Goodluck Jonathan and President Olusegun Obasanjo must have been jolted when news filtered out that the two had attended a church service at the Presidential Villa, last Sunday and had a private lunch afterwards.

DO State governors deserve the approbium directed at them from all informed sections of the polity? What does it feel like to be a governor and exercise the type of powers that make you at once a major source of power and patronage, and an albatross around the neck of our democracy?

AS he is wont to do, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi triggered another quarrel when he called for the banning of ethnic and religious organisations on the grounds that they inhibit the growth of an all-inclusive political process, threaten national unity and heighten the state of insecurity in the nation.

AT the zenith of his power, President Olusegun Obasanjo was credited with the quip that you should check your watch every time President Ibrahim Babangida said good morning to you.

Britain’s blue chip index fell on Monday for the first time this year, balking at technical resistance levels having reached its highest close for nearly two years in the previous session.

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan says 2013 will be the year of his greatest impact. Most Nigerians will hope so. Leaders of the opposition and skeptics who hope he will disappoint again will pay for their hostility with higher costs for diesel for their generators, higher costs to protect and secure life and limbs, and uncertainties over whether a President who performs badly all through his four year s will allow a free and fair election to determine his fate in 2015. If 2013 will be the year President Jonathan will affect our lives most, what factors will be in play in shaping it?

THE awesome power of the Almighty was visible on Saturday last week when the plane which was flying the Governor of Kaduna State and former National Security Adviser, among others, crashed, and all lives in it were lost. The nation was also reminded of the deep submission to the powers of God by President Goodluck Jonathan in the manner his pictures were splashed all over the media and social network sites kneeling, as he did in 2010, before Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.

THE kidnapping, last Sunday, of the mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, from her home will shock even those who have been desensitized by the endemic nature of this crime.

THE Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) stumbled last week in its search for a chairman for its Board of Trustees (BOT). The position has been vacant since President Obasanjo walked away from it some months back.

GOVERNOR of Rivers State and Chairman of the Governors Forum, Rotimi Amaechi provided a useful glimpse into the thinking of some governors on some of the key issues being discussed for constitutional amendments.

“Politics – the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.” -Oscar Ameringer

THE President’s men are busy putting out lengthy repudiations of allegations and suspicions that he has an agenda to scuttle the numerous initiatives towards arresting corruption and waste in our oil and gas sector.