Management thinkers once popularised a deceptively simple idea: under the right conditions, 2 + 2 can equal 5. The proposition was never intended to challenge arithmetic. Rather, it captured a powerful truth about organisations, economies, and societies – when institutions function effectively, incentives are properly aligned, and resources are deployed with discipline and purpose, outcomes can exceed what the individual inputs might ordinarily suggest. Efficiency creates value and allows societies to achieve more with what they have. For many, this is precisely where Nigeria’s development challenge lies. Not in a shortage of resources or ideas, but in the persistent inability to convert both into broad-based progress.