EVERYTHING is possible during campaigns. However, there is a lot that we can learn if we pay more attention to campaigns for the 2015 elections, especially the presidential one, where all the verve seems to b

IN the ingenuity of the politician, the future of Nigeria is tied to elections. When politicians, who call themselves leaders, engage in phased discussions of Nigeria, they are not contemplating legacies that would enhance the development of Nigeria. Their entire concerns are elections, the struggle for power, the decisions about who becomes what, and those marked for nothingness.

AS 2015 begins, people have high expectations. They dream their New Year ambitions. It is an annual ritual that helps brush aside failures of the faded year. The beginning of every year affords deep reflection on the past and the future. Some call these New Year resolutions.

NIGERIANS are getting to the reality that every part of the country wants to free space and whatever resources it can for itself. The arguments are not about who settlers are and who are the indigenes, they are about the fact that Nigerians are now grappling with issues of citizenship. It is an issue that deserves handling with uttermost sensibility and sensitivity.

CORPORATE Nigeria, a group that impetuously springs to life for a presidential election, contributed over N21 billion at President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent fund raising. In the 2003 and 2007 elections, Corporate Nigeria raised billions of Naira for Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar’dua. In October 2010, it raised money for Jonathan before he became a candidate! According to Section 221 of the Constitution, “No association, other than a political party, shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election.” Corporate Nigeria is not a political party. Could donors at the event be Peoples Democratic Party members, in which case their action could qualify them as acting for a political party? It is unlikely. The secrecy on identity of donors says so.

TODAY is Christmas. It may just happen on millions of Nigerians who have survived one of the worst years of their lives. From security challenges to the pangs of the retracting economy, there are hardly resour-ces to make Christmas merry. While Christmas used to be awaited with anticipations of the joys of the season, 2014 has been a year of unequalled challenges in the race for survival. Survivors still bear the marks of a year of excruciating moments of doubts about governments or their purpose.

FIVE years ago, the high cost of governments was a hot issue. The principal concern was the jumbo pay the National Assembly instituted for its privileged 469 members. Once the debate extended to other areas of government, it died. The Presidential Advisory Council, PAC, suggested reduction in the number of Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

ELECTIONS have been confirmed for February 2015, less than two months away since the first series would hold on February 14. We expected politicians would have deemed it important to start engaging the people in discussions about their future, about the competence they are providing as leaders and their expectations from those they lead.

FOCUS has been on the terrorists that have been attacking the North East, but a new set of terrorists have emerged, though ignored, they are cutting off whatever ameliorations are planned for victims of terror. The new terrorists disrupt aids meant for victims of terror. They are not new to their game, they only change garbs.

THE increasing cruelties our society harbours have moved to insistent assaults on children by guardians, who descend on their wards with the most puerile excuses.Gory media images of children dismembered, beaten to death, with shrivelled fingers, or reduced to skeletons are becoming common.

EFFORTS to apply the 2011 Freedom of Information Act, FOIA and 2003 Child Rights Act, CRA, nationally, indicate that Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and All Peoples Congress, APC, – Nigeria’s major political parties – reject these laws primed on accountability and Nigeria’s future.

OUR country is in more danger each day. Every move to pull her from the brink is set for ruination by those who think that the country is all about them. They have narrowed issues to a few politicians, instead of the larger interests of Nigerians, without which the country would remain mired in its many challenges.

MINISTER of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, is alarmed at the depth of corruption among university graduates. He wondered about the situation during an assessment visit to the University of Lagos. Does Mallam Shekarau live in Nigeria?

BETWEEN November 2 and December 6, criminals struck at prisons in Koton Karfe, Kogi State, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State and Minna, Niger State, leading to escape of 695 convicted criminals. A similar break in Akure last year, freed 175 criminals.

FIDELITY is not an attribute of Nigerian politicians. The ease with which they jump from one political party to the other removes all doubts that the politician believes only in himself and causes that foster his expansive interests.