On Thursday December 1, the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, cringed when the senate joint committee investigating the management of funds set aside for petroleum subsidy handed her a seven-day ultimatum to produce a secret forensic report on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in her custody.

The audit done for her ministry by renowned audit and advisory consultancy, KPMG, which exposed the massive financial malfeasance and monumental corruption in the NNPC, is one document the federal government, the petroleum ministry and the NNPC have worked hard to conceal for a little over a year now.

The report, which could trigger a fierce face-off between the federal and state governments, is one of the most closely guarded secrets in Nigeria today. It contains shocking details of how the NNPC, and by implication, the federal government has been swindling the states.

Nigeria's president has sacked the chief of police, Hafiz Ringim, forcing him to retire early, a statement from the presidency says.

It follows a wave of attacks by the Islamist group Boko Haram, the latest in Kano on Friday in which 185 people died.

The group says it wants to overthrow the government and impose Islamic law.

President Goodluck Jonathan's move was aimed at "meeting emerging internal security challenges", AFP reports.

There have been calls for the police chief's resignation since a man suspected of masterminding Christmas Day bomb attacks on churches escaped from police custody earlier this month.

Fellow FB Nigerians, looking at the current state of affairs in our country, most importantly the failure of our government to provide us with safety and security in the midst of the excruciating hardship and poverty which they have created; you would all agree that the time has come for Nigerians all over the world to mobilise a new breed of leaders for our country and flush out the current highly corrupt, inept, insensitive and grandiosely diabolical masters parading as leaders. Unless we begin to think this way and urgently so, there is no future for our children and the country called Nigeria will soon disappear.

Kabiru Sokoto, who some people suspect is the second in command of Boko Haram, would hardly be in police custody again. The probability that he is dead already outweighs the lesser possibility that he has crossed to neighbouring countries.

By the time he was arrested, Kabiru was planning to leave Nigeria, according to reports. That means he has gauged that the country entirely was not safe enough for his abode.

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.