The Enugu State Government wants applause for recording ₦406.77 billion in Internally Generated Revenue in 2025 and for boldly projecting ₦870 billion in 2026. On paper, those numbers look impressive. Historic, even.

But let’s pause the applause and ask the only question that matters:

What changed for the people?

Let’s be very clear: ₦406.77 billion is not small money. It is nearly three billion US dollars. That level of revenue does not pass through a state quietly. If it were doing any real work, you wouldn’t need press releases or explanations, you would see it.

So where is it?

Where are the factories?
Where are the industrial clusters?
Where are the thousands of decent jobs this kind of money should have created?

Because what is visible instead is deeply troubling. Retired civil servants in Enugu are still chasing pensions and gratuities owed for decades, some dating back to periods when today’s leaders were already in positions of fiscal authority. Many of these retirees are aging in hardship. Some have died waiting. This is not just an abstract problem, it is equally a moral one with pure disregard for the senior citizens.

We are told about revenue growth, but dignity has not grown.
We are shown figures, but industry is absent.

We hear projections, but accountability is missing.

This conversation is no longer about statistics or targets. It is about absence:

Absence of industry
Absence of jobs
Absence of relief for ordinary people
Absence of honesty about outcomes

If ₦406.77 billion can be generated and ordinary citizens are still this poor, this desperate, and this ignored, then something is fundamentally wrong.

Not misunderstood.
Not exaggerated.
Wrong.

And no amount of noise will change that.