Nigeria is to carry out a forensic audit of the state oil company over an alleged $20 billion subsidy racket that officials say may help explain what happened to $50 billion in oil revenues that the governor of the central bank says is missing. The audit, ordered last week by a Senate committee investigating allegations of corruption in the oil industry of Africa’s second largest economy, could become political dynamite as Nigeria heads into a presidential election in 2015. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and one of its leading oil producers, is considered one of the most corrupt states on the continent, with much of the graft centered on the oil industry, whose revenues provide around 80 percent of the state budget and more than 90 percent of export earnings. The West African country’s “oil and gas industry has proved remarkably resistant to […]