Every modern economy survives on a fragile but essential bargain between the state and its citizens. Governments demand taxes, citizens expect public value in return. Where this bargain holds, taxation becomes a foundation for development.
Where it breaks, taxation is experienced as extraction. Nigeria’s 2025 tax reform enters this uneasy terrain, not merely as a fiscal adjustment, but as a test of whether the Nigerian state can rebuild credibility in how it raises, manages, and deploys public revenue.
Nigeria’s fiscal weakness is well do
