For decades, the argument over Nigerian federalism has sounded abstract: a negotiation between constitutional lawyers, party grandees and regional blocs. That is changing. Fiscal strain, new state-level responsibilities and public impatience are turning structure into an everyday question.
The test is no longer whether power should move closer to citizens. It is whether state institutions are ready to use it. Capacity, transparency and local trust will decide whether devolution produces genuine public value—or simply relocates the bottleneck.
The most consequential reforms may therefore look unglamorous: procurement systems that can be audited, state assemblies with research capacity, local data that citizens can understand, and public services designed around actual communities rather than administrative habit.