The political “game” of the 2011 presidency is becoming fascinating. As people voice their support for or opposition to the candidates on offer, the plot to win thickens, making it even more difficult for observers to attempt a prediction.

There was hardly any newspaper that you could open recently, without reading about yet another group of politicians, civil society, ethnic group or plain opportunists endorsing the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan. The gentleman is yet to announce it, but no matter; several people have done that for him already.

Today, I will go a little deeper on certain issues. Life itself is very deep, and you really cannot fully understand it. Just when you begin to think you are getting a grasp of what life is all about, things happen, and you begin to realize that it really is a little bit complicated.

I was not moved when we crashed out of the World Cup. I never expected wonders from the team. I had prepared my mind for the worst. I saw disaster coming but I never knew it was going to be that bad – that a team would lose two matches and still had a chance to qualify if they won one against a country like South Korea and still failed!

BASIL RISBRIDGE Davidson is not the saint- like hero that Ernesto Che Guevera conjures. He was not a Tarzan swinging through the African jungles, neither was he a missionary of some foreign religion who evangelised the continent at the cost of its land, culture, blood and wealth.

If we are to be guided by media reports, everyone is set for the eventful year, 2011 – the year of all important elections. Even President Goodluck Jonathan appears more enthusiastic than others when he cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against any form of failure when he emphatically said that, ‘gone are the days when those in charge of electoral or other responsibilities will use such phrases as ‘our hands are tied‘ for justification or failure‘.

NIGERIANS are in celebration after the scintillating performance of the Falconets in the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The 4-2 (penalty shoot outs) defeat of the USA in the quarter-finals of the competition is epochal, not because for the first time Nigeria would be playing in the semi-final, but the expectation that women’s football would get respect for the first time.

Whenever Nigerians talk about zoning in particular or politics in general, they talk as if they are totally wedded to the idea that a Southern President must have a Northern Vice-President; and vice versa. There is also a tendency to regard each geopolitical zone as a united interest group…AND a widespread assumption that it’s OK for every Head of State to have two four-year terms.

THE new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, got me worried when he gave the “salvaging” of the Maurice Iwu voters register as an option. In his maiden press conference on Thursday, July 22, 2010, he had hinted that his Commission would have no choice but to attempt a salvage of the old register if the N72 billion required to acquire the machines and logistics for the creation of a credible and computerised electoral register and database was not granted.

When Senate President, David Mark declared that the “successful” amendment of the 1999 Constitution showed that the Senate has the “courage” to do what is right, he was stating an obvious untruth. As a retired general he knows that courage or bravery is the ability to do what is dangerous or painful without showing fear.

THE ships involved were constructed to secure the chained passengers in the long journey from Africa to the Americas. On the auction blocks in the New World African captives were sold to their ultimate buyers still in chains.

So the Federal Government has placed orders for the purchase of about 100 units of Peugeot cars for the use of the Police in combating kidnapping across the country?

When a colleague from Brila FM first called to sound me out on the purported friendly against South Korea, I was very angry and said so. I asked him, “ what friendly, why?”

No matter from what angle you look, what you see of Nigeria is a bleak future unless something drastic is done and pronto. Because of greed and corruption, we are, as former Governor of Cross River State, Mr Donald Duke, put it in a talk he gave at a Save Nigeria Group forum in Abuja recently, “designing a system that would destroy us in the end”.

The just concluded football extravaganza in South Africa, in my view, is one of the most interesting World Cup finals in recent history. Indeed, it is a pivotal achievement for FIFA, because it was the first time the soccer fiesta was held in Africa.