At last the Federal government has committed to hiring independent Forensic Auditors to verify, and get to the roots of the persistent allegation of a missing $20 billion from the oil accounts. This move was announced on Thursday by Finance Minister and the Federal government’s Chief Treasurer, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at a press briefing following her appearance before the senate’s Finance Committee which had commenced investigations into the alleged missing funds.

On Wednesday just past, the federal government, through the office of the Chief Secretary of State (Secretary to the Federal Government), announced the final guidelines for the proposed National Conference to be convened in Abuja, the federal capital. It might suffice here to summarize the modalities as announced by Mr. Anyim Pius Anyim: the conference is billed tentatively to last through three months of deliberation to be managed by a Conference Management Secretariat. Delegation to the conference would come from the six regional or geo-political areas as well as nominations from special interest groups, from “traditional rulers” to professional bodies, to Labour, to “Civil Society Groups.”

On Friday, Vanguard reported that the National Executive Committee of the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) directed its members in the National Assembly to block the passing of the appropriation bill and the confirmation hearings of the president’s new cabinet nominees and service appointments to the Nigerian High Command “until the federal government halts the escalating violence in Rivers State.”

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.

Anyone who accepts public office does so with the clear understanding that they no longer have a private life. Their lives belong thence to the public realm and come under consistent scrutiny. Stella Oduah, Minister for Aviation, surely must know this by now, and must therefore accept as a matter of course that whatever she places in the public domain must reflect the highest, unimpeachable, and verifiable truth about her life.

The Lepata Mambu – common ly known now as “Vuvuzela” – is a noisemaking plastic horn which football fans now use to cheer on their team. It is South Africa’s contribution to the world of sports, and in many ways is an appropriate metaphor for the self-involved crass called governance in Imo state today under Governor Anayo “Rochas” Okorocha. One of the effects of the vuvuzela, aside from making loud noises, is that it can also cause a loss of hearing. Rochas Okorocha’s use of the political vuvuzela – what the Igbo would call “ndi Otimkpu” – paid, professional noisemakers – has probably caused him loss both of insight and hearing. Imo State is plodding along listlessly under misgovernance.

Nigeria is the successor state to all the pre-existing powers – the old, exhausted, crumbling and defeated empires, kingdoms, sultanates, and republican aristocracies and the city states that once reigned prior to amalgamation in 1914. It is the modern nation forged out of the colonial contact. From 1914 – 1963, this modern nation was a “British possession,” which means that if fell under the economic and political control of the British Empire. It had been granted self-governing status or independence by the British Empire on October 1, 1960, with the inauguration of the Prime Minister as head of its parliament under the British Commonwealth.

Last week, Reuben Abati, presidential spokesman issued a full threat to those who are canvassing the impeachment of the president. He cautioned them against “treason.” Dr. Abati is wrong. You’d think that as former fire-eating newspaper columnist, the man who now speaks for the president would know the difference between the felony of treason and the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech. Speech is protected under the Nigerian bill of rights. It is one of those rights we fought for; why we chose democracy over tyranny. Those who are calling for the impeachment of the president cannot be accused of treason because they are expressing political thought and conscience.

Now, you can’t touch: Mathew Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo, General and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, former President of the Republic, ex-this and that, felt the pull in his patriotic heartstrings last week, and he penned a most acerbic letter to his “acolyte” – President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. General Obasanjo is known to rise to the occasion with his letters. He wrote Shagari, he wrote Buhari; he wrote the famous letter urging Babangida to “put a human face to SAP;” heck, he wrote to himself! Now, he has written Jonathan.

Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amechi has opened an important debate about Nigeria’s oil industry, and it is an important question. How much oil does Nigeria sell daily? How much of this actually reflects in Nigeria’s revenue accounts? This has been a mystery. Indeed Nigeria’s oil revenue account is one of the most secret of mysteries, made even more so by a most secretive administration whose executive authority is so wide-ranging that it can afford to play God on this matter.