HAD he remained in office Joseph Aloisius Ratsinger would have clocked eight full years on the throne of St. Peter as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church in April.

ALL Progressive Congress, the political party that was cobbled together from at least four other major parties, is the opposition answer to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, behemoth in a Nigeria where the idea of independent candidacy is yet to gain sound footing however desirable.

ONE look at the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and it’s clear it is one mad house of hostile room mates with clashing ambitions. But these apparently hostile roommates are nevertheless united by their common greed for power and the unmerited perks that come with it.

THERE is yet no news of any arrests of members of the group that attacked health workers in different parts of Kano many days ago. The most we’ve heard is that the Police have ordered additional security for health personnel working for the eradication of polio in the affected areas.

THE Constitution of this country has established the prime value of the currency of Nigerian citizenry, and our politics instead of being the cultivation of the appreciation of Nigerian citizenry, has been and continues to be a process of a structured depreciation of the value of citizenry.

CHRIS HUHNE, 58, was until last week a member of Parliament representing the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire, England. But after more than seven years in the parliament, the leading Liberal Democrat resigned his seat after admitting to swapping speeding points with his former wife, Vicky Pryce, in order not to lose his driving license in 2003.

DOUBLE whammy is what the English will call it. But for Fela, its ‘c-o-n-f-u-s-i-o-n breaki boni’ because ‘deadi bodi geti aksident’ as he put it in his album, ‘Confusion Break Bone’.

I’M still at a loss understanding the purpose of President Jonathan’s visit to the Police Training College in Ikeja given the very confused and confusing comments coming from him and the presidency.

AMONG makers of history, at least as far as Nigeria goes, Rose Uzoma must stand high. She is the second woman ever to head the Nigerian Immigration Service, a male-dominated world in which to be a woman is to be a minority.

WE’VE had cases in this country of deputy governors who suffered impeachment or fell out of favour with their bosses for real or perceived acts of disloyalty when the governors were away from duty.

THE next presidential election in Nigeria is in 2015, more than two full years away but already the seat of government in Abuja is flooded with campaign posters of incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, in a pitch for four more years. The presidency has washed its hands off the posters but said it would not order their removal. Very correct response, as that would amount to abridgment of the right of the campaigners.

THIS, no doubt, is the appropriate note to begin the new year- with prayers for our own country. Not just because of the claim by many that the past year, 2012, was a terrible one. One can’t be sure if there would ever be a year when the whole country, to say nothing of the whole world, would be in agreement that a year has been so good nobody has something to cry about. One cannot deny last year was a hard year for Nigerians. Evidence abound that it was a tough year and up to the last few days, many could still point to incidents that brought tears to their eyes. There were still terrorist killings, unprovoked cowardly attacks that have been the hallmark of life in many parts of the country.

AS the year 2012 gradually winds down and goes the way of 2011, one of the prominent news items to be seen around the world is the fact that the year has been one of the deadliest for journalists. There can be no doubt that this year has taken a terrible toll on journalists.

SANUSI Lamido Sanusi, governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, revels in controversy- or so it appears. From one controversial step to another Sanusi luxuriates in his loudmouth image. But if sometimes Sanusi seems mad, in manner of speaking, there is no doubt method to his madness

ALL literature is ideological, so says Karin Barber in one of her ever cerebral and insightful works on Yoruba literature.