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OPINION: Sending Ooni Of Ife To Tinubu

Published

1 year ago

April 29, 2024

By Lasisi Olagunju

One day, I will have the courage to ask the immaculate Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, how he feels each time he travels on the horrible Ibadan-Ife road. Ben Okri, ‘The Famished Road’ storyteller, finds his own ‘road’ a torment – he says it “leads home and then away from it, without end.” Okri thinks the road a torment because he meets it “with too many signs and no direction.” The Ife-Ibadan road has signs, it has directions – and I find them very treacherously significant because they interlock fingers while road users lose life and limbs. The road has signs and directions to the very bowel of hell.

Olojo, the guardian divinity of the House of Oduduwa, is the famed owner of two machetes: with one machete, he prepares the field for the plants of tomorrow; with the other, he clears the road for prosperity (Ó fì’kan sán’ko/ Ó fì kan yè’nà). Those weapons must either now be blunt or lost. An Odu Ifa tells us something about Ile Ife and roads. It affirms that well-paved open roads start from Ile Ife. That affirmation today can only be treated on the operating theatre of irony. Could it be that truth has an expiry date and Ogbe’s truth of good, open roads in Ile Ife has expired? What we see today from the capital of Yorubaland (Ibadan) to the historical source of Yoruba people is the torment of a closed road that mocks the pathfinder-spirit of Oduduwa. The road does worse with its gaping craters and their threats of morphing into greater gullies. And it is a federal road.

Has the Ooni ever told the president that the worst road in the universe leads to his kingdom? Has he told the president that the N79.8 billion contract for the reconstruction of Ibadan-Ife-Ilesa road awarded in September, 2019 by his friend and villa mate, Muhammadu Buhari, has remained a contract for ghosts? Has he invited the president’s attention to the truth that since last year when he took over, the road has sunk even deeper in the mire of decrepitude? And, that even FERMA, a perennially rich agency that pretends giving palliatives on federal roads, has since seen the futility of stitching this rag? Or could it be that Kabiyesi does what our presidents since 1999 do – escaping road users’ pains by flying over our heads?

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The reigning culture here is rooted in the ragged soils of our toil. I admit that badness is not peculiar to the Ife-Ibadan-Ilesa road. It is a national affliction that can’t be cured because of the greed of doctors who treat sick roads with fake and expired drugs.

We work hard to build roads that wear out before they are inaugurated. We have the interminable construction mess called Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. When did construction start there? When will it end – if it will ever end? How much have we sunk there? And, is it not a shame that the road is ready already for corrective surgery even before its makers are done making it? If you are a woman, and you are pregnant and your doctor tells you dancing is a ‘safe and fun way to exercise’, do not dance to the break beats of that road. It is made for abortion.

Ben Okri says “all roads lead to death” and “some roads lead to things which can never be finished.” Is that why our federal government’s roads are forever ongoing, none is ever finished or completed? Federal government’s statistics says out of Nigeria’s national road network of 200,000 kilometers, 36,289 km belong to it. Now, you ask Abuja which of its other roads, apart from the one from the Villa to Abuja airport, is good? Ask them why almost all roads that wear federal tags suffer neglect, abandonment or crass abuse.

My NYSC journey to the far north 34 years ago was on the Ibadan-Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Yauri road. It was an experience in pleasantness. It is, today, a monument to frustration, a shrine to demons that feed on losses -human and material. The Ibadan-Oyo-Ogbomoso part of that road is one major reason why Nigeria should not have a federal government – or have roads managed by the Federal Government. There should be a coroner’s inquest on why that road was killed and who killed it. Without the states, the vehicle of Nigeria would have long lost its chassis. States keep doing what heart surgeons do when arteries are found blocked. They create bypasses, byways. A brand new 78-kilometre Iseyin-Ogbomosho road has just been built by Seyi Makinde’s Oyo State to escape the Federal Government’s death trap along that axis. A commenter online wrote: “The road has helped us to link northern Nigeria without using the dangerous Oyo-Ilorin road that has consumed so many lives…” The Oyo-Ilorin road of death spoken of here belongs to the government in Abuja.

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Potholes jolt us to appreciate what bad roads represent in our lives. They tell us why the tyres of our country never last and why our rides are forever bumpy. Asking questions on why our roads are perennially bad is living the times of Ayi Kwei Armah’s ‘Two Thousand Seasons’: “A thousand seasons wasted wandering amazed along alien roads, another thousand spent finding paths to the living way.” Like Ouroboros, the self-tail-devourer, Nigeria’s ‘alien roads’ cyclically keep consuming the ‘living way.’

It is time to pound yam for the household, the idler among us goes for the heaviest pestle. This is better said in Yoruba: Òle bàá tì, ó gb’ódó nlá. There are abandoned federal roads everywhere which directly affect millions of Nigerians, but the government has moved the money to a 700km super coastal highway that will cost N15.6 trillion. The first phase is 47 kilometres, starting somewhere and ending nowhere, at a cost of N1.06 trillion. Should I just say that that N1 trillion will start and complete the reconstruction of decrepit Ibadan-Ife-Ilesa Road (224km), Ilorin to Bida (244.9km) and Shagamu to Benin (492km) if wisdom wills? Even at an inflated cost of N1 billion per kilometre, our husbands will achieve these and will even ‘collect change’. And Tinubu would have become very popular with it. But he wants a white elephant and has moved our money to purchase it.

White elephants are always expensive! Poet and journalist, Mathew Wills, in his ‘The Original White Elephant’ defines ‘white elephant’ as “something excessive that turns out to be valueless.” James A. Robinson and Ragnar Torvik in 2005 published an interesting article about the third world and deliberate bad investments – they titled their article: ‘White Elephants’. In that piece, they hold that politicians around here would always go for “white elephants” as against “socially efficient projects” because “the political benefits are large compared to the surplus generated by efficient projects.” That piece says much more than this. It is published in the Journal of Public Economics 89 (2005: 197-210). I think you should read it.

‘The Stolen White Elephant’ by Mark Twain is an interesting story on the cost of investing in big, expensive loss centres. It is the story of a fictional Kingdom of Siam. A reviewer says Siam is blessed with a “national appetite for fraud”. Another says it has officers of “pompous assumption of infallibility and ridiculous inappropriate procedures.” The “pointless” story is about an expensive search for a stolen white elephant, a further loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation and the eventual discovery of the rotting corpse of the supposedly stolen animal. The story ends with the duped narrator celebrating the man who duped him. It ends as the man pronounces himself “a ruined man and a wanderer in the earth.” In Studies in American Humour, Peter Messent (1995) does a lot of justice to it in his ‘Keeping Both Eyes Open.’ The whole story sounds Nigerian; what Fela called “expensive shit.” But I can argue that though we wander today, the past was a better experience.

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“How can you develop a country rapidly if you can’t get about it?” Sir Rex Niven, pre-independence Speaker of Northern Nigeria House of Assembly, asked that question 69 years ago in relation to the state of roads in Nigeria. On January 27, 1955, Riven was asked to brief the Royal African Society and the Royal Empire Society in London on “Recent Developments in Nigeria.” He gave a very detailed account of himself as a British participant in the affairs of a key component of the Nigerian federation. Sector by sector, he spoke about efforts and failures. He particularly spoke on roads which he described as “the most important of the great aspects of development.” He said as he was speaking (in 1955), Nigeria had over 30,000 miles of roads whereas in 1920, “she had hardly any at all.” Then he used Kabba (in present Kogi State) to illustrate what he was saying: “The first province I went to, the newly constituted Kabba Province, had exactly 4 miles of road…but when I left Kabba four years later, there were over 200 miles of road.” Thirteen years later, the same Niven, in retirement, told the Commonwealth section of the Royal African Society on 11 November, 1969 that Nigeria had 40,000 miles of quality roads. That figure was even in spite of the ongoing civil war. Now, you ask: Why are our golden years always in the past? The past was obviously better handled.

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OPINION: Peter Obi And The Genius Of Yahoo Yahoo

Published

8 minutes ago

October 28, 2025

Editor

By Suyi Ayodele

Some Nigerians said it was wrong for Mr. Peter Obi to have labelled Yahoo Boys geniuses. I heard them and wondered whether ‘genius’ now has a new meaning apart from what the dictionary says it is.

The Shorter Oxford Dictionary (2007), on page 1091, defines genius as: “Natural ability or tendency, attributes which fit a person or particular activity. Natural aptitude, talent, or inclination for, to (something).”

Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election, in the post titled: “Our Youths Need Redirection”, that he shared on his verified X handle, after a conference he addressed in Onitsha, Anambra State, said that “some of our so-called Yahoo boys are geniuses who need redirection, not condemnation.”

He did not stop there. He posited further by saying that the “creativity and courage” of the Yahoo Boys, “if properly guided, can drive innovation and national development. Our challenge is to channel their energy from deception to productive enterprise. I also stressed that the reckless pursuit of money destroys both character and community. Leadership must lead by example, for a nation that rewards dishonesty cannot build integrity. I urged our youths to rediscover the dignity of labour and embrace hard work and innovation. Nations are built not by miracles but by men and women who think, work, and build.”

Pray, what do the Yahoo Boys display if not aptitude? How do they succeed in fleecing people of their hard-earned money if not that the Yahoo Boys are naturally gifted and their victims stupid or greedy, or a combination of both? How does a 17-year-old boy convince a 60-year-old man to part with his money on the promise that the old man would be given an oil block? Who swindles like that if not a genius? And we have these geniuses in our homes as children, wards and relations. The attention we pay to them matters.

A few weeks ago, I had lunch at an old friend’s house at Ido Ekiti. His wife, also a friend, was generous with the pounded yam she served. We were almost through when their 15-year-old daughter came in with two of her friends.

The girls greeted us and made for their section of the house when my friend called his daughter back. He complained that he was having an issue with his android phone and asked her to check it. The girl asked what the issue was, and the father explained. What followed almost ruined our lunch.

Taking the phone from the father, the young girl said: “But I taught you how to fix this problem before, Daddy. I know you will soon call me again because of this.” It was not what she said that was the problem. The what-else-do-you-think-that-makes-you-to-forget manner she said it, was the issue. If an adult were to say those words, he would have simply called my friend an alakogbagbe (teach-and-forget soul)!

The girl simply punched some buttons and returned the phone to the father. “I have done it”, she said, giggling. The father, surprised, asked how, since he had locked his phone. The girl, laughing, simply said: “I know your password, even mummy’s and Uncle Tunji’s password.” She dropped the phone and dashed inside to join her friends.

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We simply exchanged glances and continued with our lunch. But I could feel the tension. My friend’s wife was particularly embarrassed, but I felt nothing. Only God understands the ways of this generation.

While seeing me off, I decided to douse the tension, or minimise the reprimand I knew would follow once I departed. I quipped: “That’s a brilliant girl.” My friend responded: “Yes, but she can be rude. I have told her to watch how she talks.” I stopped and asked if the girl was rude or simply wondered why an adult should forget things easily. The wife joined the husband and affirmed that the girl was rude.

Then I said to the two of them: “I think I know what you people should do. Stop paying her school fees.” “Ha!” They both exclaimed, and I added: “Yes nao, sebi you said she is rude.” We all laughed at the joke, and I left.

My friend’s daughter will be 16 years old in June next year. But I was told that there is nothing she can’t design using computer applications! We have children like her in our homes; restless, brilliant, naturally impatient with perceived docility and outspoken to the point of seeming ‘rude’! What we do with them makes all the difference.

Teckworm, an online technology news and media company, on September 19, 2018, published an article: “Meet these 5 child hackers who could become top cyber security researchers.” The article, written by Maya Kamath, demonstrates how the society could guide negative prodigies into becoming useful members of the society especially in the field of Cybersecurity that is experiencing a shortfall of skilled professionals.

The first of the youngsters is Reuben Paul, a nine-year-old boy, and a third grader in Harmony School of Science, Austin, Texas, USA, who at a .B-Sides security conference, demonstrated how in a matter of minutes, hackers can easily steal all the important data from any Android smartphone including contact details, call logs and messages. The kid warned: “If a child can do it then a regular hacker can do it … so I just want everybody to be aware [and to] be more careful when you download games and stuff like that.” He went ahead to establish the Prudent Games and became the CEO at age nine!

Another kid is Betsy Davies, a seven-year-old British girl, who was able to hack the public Wi-Fi network following a short video tutorial. After 10 minutes, the article says: “Surprisingly, Betsy was able to hack the open Wi-Fi and steal the traffic of the volunteer in just 10 minutes and 54 seconds. Betsy managed this by setting up a Rogue Access Point which is normally used by hackers to carry out the “Man in the Middle” (MiTM) attack on the overly trusting web surfers to sniff web traffic.

The piece further mentions Kristoffer Von Hassel, a five-year-old kid hacker, the piece further states, “exposed the Xbox password flaw for which he has been officially added to the list of Microsoft’s recognized security researchers. We can expect a five-year-old kid to play the Microsoft Xbox Game as well as know the operating system. However, just imagine if a five-year-old kid starts finding a security vulnerability in the system. It just seems impossible; however, little Kristoffer Von Hassel discovered a back door into one of the most popular gaming systems and that is the Xbox Game.”

Another wonder kid identified only as “An Unnamed Canadian”, said to be 12 years old and a fifth grader, “launched a series of Denial-of-Service (DoS), spoofing and even defacement attacks against the Canadian government websites in support of the Quebec student protests. It seems the young protester even passed the data which was stolen from the government websites to the Anonymous group in exchange for video games. The young hacker was from Montreal and also pleaded guilty for being responsible for the shut down of a number of government sites including the Quebec Institute of Public Health and the Chilean government.”

The last of the quintet is a 10-year-old security researcher, who goes by the pseudonym ‘CyFi. According to the article, “The young Californian school girl first discovered the flaw when “she started to get bored” with the pace of farm style games. The first DefCon Kids at DefCon 19 was held in August 2011, where CyFi presented her findings on the zero-day flaw in the games on the iOS and Android devices which was confirmed to be of a new class of vulnerability by experts. While speaking to CNET, CyFi said: “It was hard to make progress in the game, because it took so long for things to grow. So, I thought, ‘Why don’t I just change the time?’”

CyFi’s, whose “real identity is being protected… was already a Girl Scout and a state ranked downhill skier. In addition, the little girl was already an artist who gave a spontaneous 10-minute speech in front of a thousand people at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.”

The Nigerian society also has more than enough shares of those young and brilliant children. What we do with them as a people is what makes the difference. While more developed societies harness the potential of such youngsters and turn them into useful members of the community, often brand and blacklist them here, calling them derogatory names instead of seeking ways to change their orientation.

In our cities and towns, we see them everyday. Young boys in their teens and early twenties driving flashy cars. A friend, who teaches in one of the state-owned universities, once told me how young boys in his school created a massive car park for themselves. He said that the situation became embarrassing such that the university authorities had to ban students from driving their cars within the campus. When I asked if that measure had stopped other students from buying their own cars, my friend answered in the negative. So, what is the effect of the ban?

Who are these super-rich kids behind the wheels of exotic cars that we see in our neighbourhoods? How did they get the money? What do they do for a living? On February 8, 2022, I published a piece titled: “The Yahoo in us all: Whose conscience have we not scammed.” In that piece, I submitted that “The issue of Yahoo Boys, Yahoo Plus and HK, are not social problems that just hit us all suddenly. No. The Nigerian society gradually moved into this present level of moral decadence, which has reached a bestial level, where sucklings now kill to make money.”

Regrettably, nothing in the submissions above has changed today! Rather, we have moved from a bad situation to an even worse one, and the worst may still be ahead. The moral decadence in our society today has become so pervasive that no segment of the society is spared. Ironically, the leaders we should look up to for direction are also complicit.

A community led certificate forgers, drug barons, ex-convicts, corrupt politicians and adults without childhood playmates cannot question the moral decadence of the youths! The Yahoo Boys of our society today are products of failed parentage. While the influence of peer groups bears some responsibility, the erosion of family values carries the greatest share of the blame.

More importantly, society’s response to the activities of these Yahoo Boys and girls will, no doubt, go a long way in transforming some of them into good citizens. This, I believe, is what Peter Obi meant when he said that “some of our so-called Yahoo boys are geniuses who need redirection, not condemnation.”

What Obi is saying is: Check these guys out, study them, understand their modus operandi and see how they can be re-oriented to channel those talents to positive ideas that will make them good and acceptable members of the society. That is exactly what a sane society does. The five kids mentioned by the Techworm are clear examples of how a negative path can be redirected.

When, for instance, Kristoffer’s parents discovered that their child could play games above his age on the Xbox Games platform, they reported their finding to Microsoft. The company investigated, discovered the flaws in the system that allowed a five-year-old to access those games and went ahead to fix the problem.

Then, Microsoft rewarded Kristoffer with $50, four games and a year subscription to Xbox Live from Microsoft! It went ahead to include “Kristoffer’s name in the list of recognised security researchers and Kristoffer now has his own Wikipedia page.” This, to me, is Obi’s message to the Nigerian society on the menace of Yahoo Boys.

This, again, I think Seye Oladejo, the Lagos State spokesman for the All Progressives Congress (APC), should see rather than his labelling Obi’s statement as “morally reprehensible”, and capable of encouraging “moral indiscipline.”

I read Oladejo’s reaction, and I wondered if he ever shared the piece with his superiors before he made it public. I don’t know how APC finds it convenient to talk about leadership that is rooted in “values, integrity, and moral responsibility”, when from top to bottom, the party flows with characters that are as despicable as the sight of maggots-infested faeces!

I would have been more at home with anyone asking Obi to always show the alternative routes anytime he comments on any public affair than anyone in the APC interrogating another man’s “moral compass”, as Oladejo did in his reaction. I begin to wonder if our politicians don’t look into the mirror to see the gory picture they depict before they go to the moral markets and spew sanctimony!

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Customs Warn Nigerians Against Falling For Fake WhatsApp Auction Scams

Published

2 hours ago

October 28, 2025

Editor

The Nigeria Customs Service has warned members of the public against falling victim to fraudulent WhatsApp messages advertising fake e-auction deals and “quick purchase” opportunities purportedly linked to the service.

In a statement posted on its official X handle on Tuesday, the service said it had become aware of a WhatsApp number,”234 814 732 3739”, impersonating its officers and misleading unsuspecting citizens with false claims of representing the Nigeria Customs Service.

“Please be informed that this number does NOT belong to the National Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service.

“The messages and posts circulating from this number are FAKE and fraudulent,” the statement partly read.

It added that the National Public Relations Officer, Assistant Comptroller Abdullahi Maiwada, has only one verified Facebook account, Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada (with a blue tick), and one official WhatsApp contact, which is not the number used by the scammers.

The service clarified that “there is no ongoing auction via WhatsApp, and no individual officer is authorised to conduct e-auction on behalf of the Service through private messages.”

Urging the public to remain cautious, the statement advised Nigerians to “ignore and block such numbers,” and “not send money or personal information to anyone claiming to represent the NCS through WhatsApp or private messages.”

It further urged citizens to “report such accounts to the appropriate authorities immediately.”

For verified updates, the service encouraged members of the public to follow its official channels: Facebook (Nigeria Customs Service), Instagram (@customsng), X (@CustomsNG), YouTube (@customsng), and its official website — https://customs.gov.ng.

The service concluded, “Please stay alert, verify before you trust, and share this message widely to protect others from falling victim to these scams.”

According to The PUNCH, rampant fraudsters now clone the Nigeria Customs Service website and other official-looking platforms to swindle unsuspecting buyers.

In another report, a 59-year-old woman, Rakiyat Musa, was arraigned before the Igbosere Magistrate’s Court sitting at Tinubu, Lagos Island, for allegedly impersonating a Nigerian Customs officer and obtaining over N34, 116,000, under pretence.

Musa, who appeared before Magistrate B. I. Amos, faced a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence, stealing, impersonation, and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.

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Anambra, Lagos, Others Top 2025 Fiscal Performance Rankings, As C’Rivers Dropped from 5th to 30th

Published

3 hours ago

October 28, 2025

Editor

Anambra State has emerged as the best-performing state in Nigeria’s 2025 Fiscal Performance Ranking, according to BudgIT’s State of States Report, released on Tuesday.

Lagos, Kwara, Abia, and Edo followed in the top five, while Cross River suffered a major decline, dropping from fifth in 2024 to 30th in 2025.

Rivers State, a consistent top-five performer in previous years, was excluded from this year’s report due to the state of emergency declared earlier in the year, which prevented the release of audited data.

In a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, BudgIT described this year’s edition—titled “A Decade of Subnational Fiscal Analysis: Growth, Decline and Middling Performance”—as a milestone marking 10 years of tracking fiscal sustainability and governance transparency across Nigeria’s 36 states.

BudgIT highlighted the key movements in the 2025 rankings.

“Anambra State rose from second to first position, securing the title of the best-performing state in the federation, while Lagos maintained its second place for the second consecutive year.

“Kwara climbed from fourth to third, Edo entered the top five after consistently ranking within the top ten over the last four editions, and Abia, which had never previously featured in the top 10, now ranks fourth,” the organisation said.

Other notable movements include Akwa Ibom, which surged 17 places from 27th to 10th, and Zamfara, which moved up nine places from 26th to 17th.

At the lower end of the rankings, Imo, Kogi, Jigawa, Benue, and Yobe occupy the bottom positions.

The report retained five key metrics to rank all 35 states: Index A – a state’s ability to meet operating expenses using only Internally Generated Revenue (IGR); Index A1 – year-on-year IGR growth; Index B – capacity to cover all expenses and loan obligations using total revenue without borrowing; Index C – debt sustainability based on foreign debt as % of total debt, total debt as % of revenue, debt service as % of revenue, and personnel cost as % of revenue; and Index D – prioritisation of capital expenditure over recurrent spending.

On revenue performance, BudgIT noted major shifts in IGR.

“While Rivers (121.26%) and Lagos (118.39%) were the only two states with sufficient IGR to cover their operating expenses in 2024, the absence of Rivers from this year’s analysis has reshaped this dynamic.

“Lagos remains a returning champion with 120.87%, while Enugu now leads with an impressive 146.68% IGR-to-operating expense ratio,” the report said.

Only five states—Abia, Anambra, Kwara, Ogun, and Edo—generated enough IGR to cover at least 50% of their operating expenses, compared with six in 2024. Fourteen states now require more than five times their IGR to cover costs, up from six in 2024, underscoring persistent challenges.

In capital expenditure, Abia led with 77.05% of its total expenditure devoted to capital projects, followed by Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, and Taraba, each allocating over 70%.

Overall, 24 states spent at least half of their budgets on capital projects, while Bauchi, Ekiti, Delta, Benue, Oyo, and Ogun devoted more than 60% to personnel and overhead costs.

Total recurrent revenue for all 35 states grew from N6.6 trillion in 2022 to N8.66 trillion in 2023 and N14.4 trillion in 2024—a 66.28% increase, far surpassing the 28.95% rise between 2022 and 2023.

Lagos accounted for 13.42% (N1.93 trillion) of total revenue in 2024. Gross FAAC transfers increased by 110.74%, reaching N11.38 trillion, with states like Oyo (785.79%), Delta (708.36%), and Anambra (640.98%) recording over 600% growth between 2015 and 2024. Despite these gains, 28 states relied on FAAC for at least 55% of total revenue.

Subnational debt also saw a change. Total debt rose modestly from N9.89 trillion in 2023 to N10.57 trillion in 2024, a 6.8% increase. The top five debtor states—Lagos, Kaduna, Edo, Ogun, and Bauchi—accounted for 50.32% of total debt.

Encouragingly, 31 states reduced domestic debt by at least N10 billion, while foreign debt fell by over $200 million.

On long-term trends, BudgIT said, “Over the past decade, the State of States has evolved into Nigeria’s most authoritative subnational fiscal analysis. This 10th edition not only reflects the story of growth and imbalance but also underscores the urgent need for reform.”

“Fiscal sustainability requires that states look inward, improving revenue systems, cutting waste, and prioritising infrastructure and human development investments that deliver long-term value,” said Vahyala Kwaga, Group Head of Research.

The report also highlighted uneven social spending. In education, only 66.9% of the budgeted N2.41 trillion was spent. Nine states—Edo, Delta, Katsina, Rivers, Yobe, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Bauchi, and Osun—exceeded 80% of their budgeted allocations, with Edo, Delta, and Katsina surpassing 100%. Average per capita spending remained low at N6,981, with no state exceeding N20,000 per capita and only eight states above N10,000.

In health, the states budgeted N1.32 trillion but expended N816.64 billion, achieving 61.9% implementation. Seven states—Yobe, Gombe, Ekiti, Lagos, Edo, Delta, and Bauchi—spent over 80% of their health budgets, with Yobe leading at 98.2%. Average per capita spending was N3,483, with only a few states exceeding N5,000, highlighting gaps in service delivery relative to education.