A geopolitical shock handed Nigeria a fiscal bonanza two and half decades ago. With Saddam Hussein’s tanks rolling into Kuwait, Nigeria amassed an approximate $12.4 billion from the ensuing Gulf war oil jump. This amount would be significantly larger today, even after adjusting for inflation. Pitiably, Nigeria did not use the bonus to build enduring infrastructure; it squandered it on phantom projects that a government probe later certified as "misspent" as the 1994 Okigbo panel found “little to show” for infrastructure, debt reduction or reserves.