The Subnational Question: How States Can Turn the FAAC Surge into Devt

Any serious conversation about Nigeria’s states should begin with the development indices. The National Bureau of Statistics’ Multidimensional Poverty Index found 133 million Nigerians, 63 percent of the population, poor across health, education, living standards and work. The crucial finding is the spread. Poverty ranges from 27 percent in Ondo to 91 percent in Sokoto. Rural poverty, at 72 percent, is nearly double the urban rate of 42 percent. Roughly 86 million of the poor live in the North. Every dimension the index measures is, in Nigeria’s constitutional design, substantially a state and local government responsibility. Development is a subnational variable. The index is a scorecard of subnational government.

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