Nigeria has been severally described as a giant, but its government has strangely modest ambitions as the country is mired in a cycle of underdevelopment that defies its potential. As President Bola Tinubu presented a budget of N58.47 trillion ($38bn) for 2026 to the National Assembly on 26th December 2025, the headline figure looked huge, but its structure showed a fiscal palsy that restrains Africa’s most peopled country. Notwithstanding the hammy presentation of the “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity,” the numbers bore a tale of torpor.