IN a recent article of the above title written by an analyst from Kano, one Mohammed Abdulkadir, he related compelling and mutually beneficial reasons why the North, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) elite in the north will support the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan, and urged for a rapprochement between the Northern power elite and the present and future leaders of the South-South zone.

IT is preposterous to argue that President Goodluck Jonathan has shown the world that performance is the focal point, the pivot, the driving force of politics. Performance is the strength of Jonathan’s transformation magic.

IN a feat of acerbic verbal tantrums, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka Tuesday December 2, attacked President Goodluck Jonathan and likened the Nigerian leader to Nebuchadnezzar the biblical autocrat and king of Babylon who initially denounced the Living Supreme God. Soyinka who addressed a press conference on the state of the nation at the popular Freedom Garden in Lagos, said that Jonathan is tyrannical because the Inspector General of Police Suleiman Abba stopped the attempt by the defected speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal to enter the Green Chamber of the National Assembly with thugs.

The main political issue today is the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) taking place at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, where the Presidential candidate of the main opposition party for the 2015 elections will emerge — Muhammed Buhari, Abubakar Atiku and Sam Nda Isaiah are in the race even as an unconfirmed report claimed Rabiu Kwankwaso and Rochas Okorocha would step down.

The history of the end of militancy in the Niger Delta cannot be completely written without acknowledging the role played by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who at great cost to his presidency, and with the assistance of his then Vice President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, traversed the delta region, bringing militancy to its knees on the negotiation table.

STORY-telling is an age-long tradition in Africa that has refused to died even in the face of invasive Western culture. Didacticism is the surviving strength of this age-long tradition. However, African politicians are good story-tellers:they always tell good stories to convince the electorate during the fevered electioneering campaign period.

Faced with the enormous challenge of overcoming Ebola earlier this year, Nigeria now has cause to celebrate. In October, the World Health Organization officially announced Nigeria as free from Ebola. Our nation applied the lessons and resources from our extremely effective polio program to respond to Ebola. And our successful approach to stopping Ebola is now a model for other countries. Nigeria has the chance to lead again to save lives. For every mother-to-be and her newborn child in Africa, this could be a turning point

THOSE of us who were already adults when, in 1986, Professor Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka won his Nobel Prize in Literature, knew very well that he won the laurel, not so much because of his literary prowess but for what he did as a political activist. So extreme was Soyinka’s radicalism that as far back as the 1960s he seized a radio station at gunpoint in Ibadan during the political crisis in Western region. To be honest, although Wole Soyinka is a scholar by profession, he is more known for his extreme political views. And, sadly, he has always been partisan and biased.

IN Nigerian politics, it is a waste of campaign efforts to try to canvass for the votes of some categories of the electorate. The first category comprises voters who have firmly made up their minds concerning whom to vote for. Given the nature of their support, nothing can possibly change their choice.

IF you ask me, all the points Chief Olusegun Obasanjo raised on the Boko Haram insurgency, as published in the Vanguard newspaper of Thursday November 27, were all valid. But the paradox is; he spent a good eight years in the saddle of the Nigerian government, why did he fail to put any of these measures he highlighted into place? After all, the seeds for Boko Haram were sown during his regime, with many state governors illegally foistering the sharia laws on hapless citizens.

I AM writing this open letter to the 8000 delegates expected to participate in the APC convention scheduled to hold at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos to select their presidential flag bearer among four aspirants on December 8, 2014.

THESE are particularly trying times for Nigeria, make no mistakes about that. The nation is under constant attacks by a terrorist group, Boko Haram, which has sworn to impose its warped understanding of Islamic law on everybody. The other day, it was in Borno; and now, it is Kano and Damaturu.

EVERY society and nation that wants to make palpably tangible growth and progress must ensure that it is super structed on the pedestal of unity, self-abnegation, people-driven ideas and patriotism. But when a nation is encapsulated in the throes and keels of negative ethnicism, regional affiliation, neanderthal sentiments, corruption, leadership inertia, nepotistic proclivities and godfatherism, etc. it is singing its own nunc demitis.

TO say that Lagos State is a microcosm of Nigeria is to say the obvious. Virtually everything that takes place in the larger Nigerian nation has its replica in Lagos State. This is more so in the area of politics where the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) is being given hard tackles by the leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in much the same way the PDP is being tackled by the APC at the national level where the roles are reversed.

FOR all it may be worth, the last tirade against President Goodluck Jonathan by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is certainly one of the salvos intended to weaken the support base of the President as his enemies led by Obasanjo plan to hit him below the belt. But the reactions of Nigerians of varied backgrounds to Obasanjo’s old tricks show that they are no fools. The people’s condemnation of Obasanjo’s hypocrisy has been overwhelming.