[font=Lucida Sans Unicode][/font][color=#990000][/color politics is very essential in the life of human to the extent Aristotle noted that"man is by nature a political animal". despite this, scholars has been unable to arrive at one particular definition of politics due to their epistemological and methodological orientation,hence politics becomes an essentially contested concept..
Scholars such as Goodnow(1904)defined politics as all the activities of the official institutions of government.this definition is limited in scope because it does not help us to define politics where there is no modern institutions of government for instance in precolonial African societies.Mosco(1939)and morganthel(1948) defined politics as essentially power and influence..Harold Lasswell defines politics as who gets what, when, and how.David Easton defines politics as the authoritative allocation of values.Okwudiba Nnoli (1895)defines politics as all the activities that are directly or indirectly associated with the seizure of state power, use of state power and consolidation of state power...Dr Chilaka Francis defines politics as all the activities which are essential but not exclusively involving the exercise of power for effectuating public interest... all these definitions of politics can be characterized by
(1)Power
(2)Authority
(3)Influence...

Nice post @ OP