In last series of this column entitled “Yuletide experiences and acknowledgments,” I wrote about the death of my father, Alagbo Ebere E. Anele, at the age of ninety-four. Before travelling to the village on December 27, 2013 to commence preliminary preparations for his funeral, I was a bit apprehensive because the stress of my late mother’s burial about three years ago was still fresh in my memory.

On Wednesday just past, the federal government, through the office of the Chief Secretary of State (Secretary to the Federal Government), announced the final guidelines for the proposed National Conference to be convened in Abuja, the federal capital. It might suffice here to summarize the modalities as announced by Mr. Anyim Pius Anyim: the conference is billed tentatively to last through three months of deliberation to be managed by a Conference Management Secretariat. Delegation to the conference would come from the six regional or geo-political areas as well as nominations from special interest groups, from “traditional rulers” to professional bodies, to Labour, to “Civil Society Groups.”

Last week’s announcement of the time table for the 2015 elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has no doubt opened a new vista in the nation’s political landscape. Already, it has elicited a number of viewpoints from different analysts. To some people, it is a pro-active welcome development. In fairness to such analysts, it is the first time in about 2 decades that our electoral body has been forward-looking with respect to its mandate thereby creating a path way for the nation’s electoral process. To other people however, the time table is nothing more than the script of the ruling party. The nature of politics and elections particularly Nigeria’s winner takes all, zero-sum game system, would make it difficult for anyone to dismiss either of the viewpoints.

My aunt regularly raises a particular point in prayer and the first time I heard it, I was intrigued. She prays to God in a dialogue form and during one of such prayers she asked for blessings and gave thanks that God is not man; if He was she didn’t believe her prayers would be heard, after all man does little else than judge his fellow man. Blessings would undoubtedly pass most of us over if men were God. We would be judged and weighed and mercy may not count for much at all. I totally agreed; it takes a highly elevated mind to get off the seat of judgement and let mercy prevail. Judgement is the bane of humanity and it is often based on emotions that are irrational and illogical; where it is sound; it still fails to deliver any satisfaction, since no man is perfect. When we judge one, we judge all.

Most often a person in high office, public or private, does not know who his true friends are, while in good standing – until he starts to slide down the greasy slope of fortune. By then it is too late. My sympathies are always with those who have been used and discarded – like tissue paper. Alhaji, your night came; when you were forced to resign the Chairmanship of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP