This week, we will closely examine the inference of the sum of $8.9bn (about N1.4tn) that NNPC confirmed it legitimately retained as fuel subsidy between January 2012 and July 2013!

ON Sunday, December 15th 2013 at about 6.00 am, I arrived at the newly reconstructed General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja on my way home to begin my annual vacation. At the entrance to the departure hall, a couple of ladies smartly decked out in the charismatic uniform of the Nigerian Army, all smiles, approached me with army rosettes, offering to pin one on my shirt front. Usually, for this favour, you pay a token sum of money to support the army. The most charming military chicks around are picked for this event, which is a cherished tradition worldwide.

I once read a book on journalism which warns that one may not be objective if one pretends not to have biases or sentiments on issues or towards some people.

For our president, one plane was never going to be enough. Our ten-plane president, if it is to be believed, is to add to the fleet for a procurement of a brand new private jet, which will become the Presidential Air Fleet’s (PAF) 11th aircraft. The PAF already boasts of two Falcon 7X jets, two Falcon 900 jets, Gulfstream 550, one Boeing 737 BBJ (Nigerian Air Force 001 or Eagle One), and Gulfstream IVSP. Others are one Gulfstream V, Cessna Citation 2 aircraft and Hawker Siddley 125-800 jet. The combined estimated value of the PAF is about $390.5m (N60.53bn).

Not too long ago, in an interview granted to a newspaper, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, second republic member of the Federal House of Representatives, described the president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as a “nincompoop.” This utter lack of measure in his address of the President of the Republic did not elicit even a public reaction, least of all by the national press who ought to have reprimanded him. You may disagree and oppose the president of Nigeria, but to call the president a nincompoop is madness and an insult to the nation. Two weeks ago the Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso called Jonathan a “weak president,” and almost as though in lock step, the Central Bank governor, Mallam Sanusi, allegedly refused to resign in spite of the President’s request, whose trust he no longer enjoys. Mallam Sanusi had misled the nation in his leaked letter to the president alleging at first that the administration is unable to account for $49.8 billion from the oil revenues, and later modifying it to $10 billion, lost in the dark hole of the administration’s oil account.