The Enugu State Government claims it generated ₦406.77 billion in Internally Generated Revenue in 2025. It is an impressive figure. It is also one that collapses under scrutiny.

If this revenue is real, Enugu should not look the way it does today.

Retired civil servants are still owed pensions and gratuities, many for years. Some have died waiting. Pension payments are a first-line obligation of government, not a luxury. A state that truly earns over ₦400 billion in a single year does not leave its retirees in permanent arrears.

Contractors remain unpaid across the state, forcing the abandonment or slow execution of public projects. Major infrastructure, including the Nike–Opi road dualisation, remains incomplete. Governments with real cash flow do not routinely default on contractors while advertising record revenue.

Meanwhile, Enugu has become one of the most expensive places to live in Nigeria. Transport, rent, food, and basic services cost more, not less. The state practically goes to sleep once it is 8pm, meanwhile there is no curfew. Residents are squeezed through aggressive levies, fees, and enforcement actions that treat struggling citizens as revenue tools rather than beneficiaries of development.

Even the revenue structure raises concerns. The government says the bulk of the ₦406.77 billion came from non-tax sources, an unusual and largely opaque category. No comprehensive, independently audited public breakdown has been provided to explain how such an extraordinary sum was raised or where it went.

This leaves only two logical conclusions.

Either the ₦406.77 billion figure is inflated for publicity, or the money was collected and misused at a scale too embarrassing to defend.

There is no third option.

Until pension arrears are cleared, contractors paid, roads completed, living costs reduced, and revenue collection eased on the poorest citizens, the figure will remain exactly what many already suspect it is.

A number without proof.
A claim without consequence.
A boast without impact.