Over the years, oil has been both the lifeblood and hex in the complex cosmos of Nigerian public finance. Cash from the black gold gushed through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) as the state oil company deducted huge fees before transferring whatever is left to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). Critics berated this approach, arguing that it hatched opacity and inefficiency and let billions vapourise into bureaucratic black holes.