IT is starting as isolated calls: that we abandon the probes into certain aspects of the achievements or lack of it of the government in the past.

Soon, the calls will be realigned and before we know it, they will be coordinated.

Right now, we have probes into the Power sector by the Committee of the House in charge of the sector. Another one into the NNPC is in the offing.

What do we expect from the probes? We expect to know how much of our hard earned money has been made available to some projects with the sole aim of bringing us relief.

We expect to hear what has become of the projects and we also would hear what and what companies are working at the various projects.

In other words, we want a review of progress and retrogression and we want a direction of where to head from there. We have barely scratched it on the surface and we have not only been assailed by the stench but also by the putrefaction of it.

From the Power probe, we have been given various expenditures: $16 billion and $10 billion. Those who are supposed to know say we had spent just $3billion or so. Lyel Imoke, Cross River governor who was in-charge of Power for sometime, seemed to have slept on it.

He says in an interview from the USA that, only $2 billion has been spent and $1.2 billion in letters of credit is sitting in the Central Bank. We cannot be shrinking our heads on that account.

But gradually, a picture is emerging: of lawmakers and, at the same time, of the law breakers - one and the same person. Those who make laws and waive them; of conforming ministers who do not have their own minds; of one set of laws for some and another for others.

And that is from one probe.

Do you imagine what skeletons would be in the cupboard when they open it for the NNPC? To be sure, we had only one minister who will answer for the deeds and misdeeds of the NNPC: Olusegun Obasanjo.

For the eight years he was in power, he was in charge. We need to know how we have been raped, ravaged and abused.

If we could do that as we are doing in the Power sector at which we threw money away, you could imagine what it would be with NNPC. We are entitled to know. And there are countless other areas that we need to look into.

It will be good for the psyche and nice to know who or the kind of masters we had engaged for ourselves. We would not stop the probe. And we have good reason to want to continue. The reason was given by Nigeria's Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa.

He said quite recently that the Obasanjo government was a very lawless one. Not only that: it encouraged anarchy.

He said: "You are not unaware of the lawlessness, if not outright anarchy that preceded the present administration.

The records of abuse of power through unlawful arrests and detentions, unjust and unwarranted impeachments that were upturned by the Supreme Court, flagrant disobedience of court orders and many other violation of the principles of the rule of law by individuals, corporate organisations and government agencies in the country's past, are still fresh in our memories."

The Attorney-General said a bicycle rider must be protected by law just as a minister or legislator.

He said the concept of rule of law means obedience to court orders, demonstration that no one was above the law whether private citizen or government officials and that people's confidence has been restored.

That is why the probes must continue. We must unearth why this unfortunate nation is poor and devastated; we must know who and who are responsible. The government may choose to do nothing about it, but in the fullness of time, the people will come down to it.

Voice from the wilderness

FROM time to time, there comes a voice from the wilderness. And this time, it is the voice of Adamu Ciroma, wizened by age and by experience. He was a protege of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello.

He must have seen the advantage of allowing the opposition a voice or the disadvantage of stilling it. He would have been seized with the practice of internal democracy and of course, external one too.

He has been many things in this country: Governor of the Central Bank, Managing Director and very sharp writer.

He worked in journalistic capacity but was surely not a journalist. He has been a politician and minister. He is a respected and believable voice from the north.

So, in his capacity as chairman of the last convention committee, he must have been fed up to the teeth in the way selection, rather than election, was conducted.

They call it consensus arrangement and we call it selection. In a report to the party's new chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, he drew the party's attention to the danger of consensus arrangements for picking candidates for elective offices.

The danger has been demonstrated by the reversal of party candidates whose victory has been overturned by the courts.

He probably also had the real opposition in mind when he cautioned against the muzzling of opposition which would not do the ruling party any good. He says: "There is need for other political parties. If there is no other party, it will not be good.

If you are looking for a good political party, you should look across your shoulders. Your responsibility is bigger because there are alternative political parties.

I urge you never to forget that you have an organisation that is well branded, you need a good government ... what I have said needed to be said because you have an onerous responsibility. We actually planned for election and had allocated lengthy time ..."

There was pageantry but no election. Ogbulafor emerged just as did Bugaje. And Ogbulafor has been talking of being in power for 60, 100 years!

The Ogbulafor man is just one of them. He would not listen. And in the manner of response, it was clear the PDP is not about to change.

As far as he was concerned: whatever happened, elections had been held and new leadership had emerged, he responded most truculently.

"Elections always have flashback but in Nigeria, we don't seem to believe. So, whichever form the election took, whether by consensus or voting, elections have been held and we should think of moving forward...," Ogbulafor said. God save this country.