THINGS are getting out of hand with our public accounting system. We are unwilling to do a thing about it because the money involved is the public’s, and where it is for pensions, the expectation could be that pensioners, should have helped themselves to public funds in service.

BUDGET defences give us rare opportunity to behold wastes in government. Possibly worse is the adamancy of government officials in defending their preferences for their comfort at our collective expense.

AFTER the 3rd May 2012 murder of the former Private Secretary to the Governor of Edo State, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde, police arrested one of his closest friends, Reverend David Ugolor, as the allegedly sponsor of the assassination.

WHEN Nigerian security operatives talk, Nigeria’s security challenges become more terrifying. We have security agents who do not understand the implications of what they say. The matter is getting out of hand particularly as the highest echelons of the agencies indulge in the practice.

DEREGULATION, Vice President Namadi Sambo said, was so critical to the survival of the economy, that there was no alternative to it. These arguments have been on for decades. For its proponents, deregulation means abdication of government’s responsibilities to its people.

IF providing food is about talking, Nigerians would have no problems meeting their needs whether in 2013 or years to come. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has been issuing assurances since the floods that there would be no food shortage.

AFTER nearly 30 years of desperately searching for solutions to the Human-Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, the vermin that leads to the deadly Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS, the world may soon heave a sigh of relief, as real hope has been kindled of a possible vaccine that could, on a single dose, offer lifelong immunity to HIV/AIDS.

WHY the alarm about the number of fake teachers in Kaduna State? What would be done beyond the alarm? Are we terrified because we do not know the total number of fake teachers in the country?

THE tragedy has been on for years, but with the death of more than 400 children in March 2010, from lead poisoning, one of the consequences of illegal gold mining, the world appeared to have noticed. Outrage, promises, and little else have been the responses.

KATSINA State is not among the country’s rich States because instead of exploring its vast agricultural resources, it depends on monthly centrally allocated resources to run its affairs, like other States.

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, cannot convict high profile thieves. EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Lamorde, while asking for more money to run his unproductive organisation told the Senate that big thieves had resources to keep their loot while their cases linger in court.

THE information management system of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration is inchoate, inadequate and downright confusing.

INCIDENTS of collapsed buildings have become daily items in the news. It has long been established that most buildings, especially multi-floor and high-rise ones, collapse as a result of poor adherence to safety regulations for modern edifices.

THERE is more to Kogi than the flood that devastated the state recently. The flood might have concealed the political bickering in the state, but as the waters recede, the state is back to the brinks.

IF you are a Nigerian living abroad, there would be something to celebrate in the charge by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Olugbenga Ashiru, to Nigerian’s missions to ensure quick services, though the report was about issuance of visas “to attract foreign investors”.