One of the earliest push backs we received at BudgIT was about our relentless focus on the Federal Government of Nigeria. Many people urged us to turn our attention to state governments, which, as they rightly argued, were “getting away with murder” in their management of public resources without accountability. That criticism spurred a wave of innovation, including the creation of the State of States Report — a fiscal sustainability index that evaluates the financial health of Nigeria’s subnational governments. With the recent surge in funding for states, which has reached over NGN12 trillion in the federal transfers for 2025, our intense focus has been justified.