The recent conference of the National Economic Council [NEC] held on 9 and 10 February 2026 was not just another gathering in Abuja. Governors left the nation’s capital with concrete action plans to translate national stability into real and measurable benefits for citizens. More fundamentally, the outcome of the conference represented a recalibration of Nigeria’s federal machinery itself, shifting emphasis from macroeconomic stabilisation at the centre to the decisive terrain of subnational execution. For the 36 state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, departure from the conference was not ceremonial. It was operational.
They returned to their respective domains bearing more than communiqués and photographs. They carried instruments of execution. Policy alignment, fiscal predictability, and a renewed understanding of their constitutional agency now form the backbone of a shared national mission to translate macroeconomic stability into tangible improvements in the daily lives of citizens.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima established the strategic horizon with unmistakable clarity. Yet within that horizon, governors focused squarely on operational realities. Their task was neither abstract nor symbolic. It was practical. It was measurable. It was urgent.
● $49 Billion Reserves Boost Planning
One of the most consequential signals came from Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Olayemi Cardoso, whose disclosure that Nigeria’s external reserves had risen to approximately $49 billion as of 5 February 2026 reverberated across the hall. This was no minor statistical update. It was a marker of national recovery. Only a few years earlier, reserves had hovered at precarious levels, leaving the economy vulnerable to currency volatility, investor anxiety, and fiscal uncertainty.
For governors, the implications were immediate and profound. External reserve strength translates into currency stability, and currency stability translates into predictability. This, in turn, fortifies allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, the lifeblood of subnational finance. Reliable inflows allow governors to plan infrastructure with greater confidence, honour debt obligations without resorting to emergency fiscal manoeuvres, and engage investors with credible assurances about economic continuity.
In essence, macroeconomic stability has ceased to be an abstract achievement of federal technocrats. It has become a practical enabler of state-level governance. It gives governors something priceless in public administration: the ability to plan without fear.
This restoration of fiscal confidence is itself a quiet revolution. Development falters not merely from lack of ambition but from uncertainty. When exchange rate volatility undermines projections, even the most visionary plans collapse under the weight of unpredictability. By stabilising the macroeconomic environment, federal reforms have created the conditions under which state-level leadership can function with coherence and foresight.
● Unified Tax Laws End Multiple Taxation
If reserve stability provided the foundation, tax harmonisation offered the most immediate operational breakthrough.
Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, delivered an update that signalled unmistakable momentum. Twelve states had already harmonised their tax laws with the emerging national framework. Thirteen others were advancing legislation through their houses of assembly. Eleven more stood at advanced preparatory stages.
This was not merely administrative progress. It was structural correction.
For decades, multiple taxation quietly undermined Nigeria’s productive economy. Small and medium-sized enterprises, whether in the bustling commercial arteries of Kano or the industrious workshops of Aba, found themselves navigating overlapping and sometimes contradictory tax demands. Compliance became burdensome. Expansion became risky. Informality became tempting.
Harmonisation promises to reverse this corrosive dynamic. A uniform and transparent tax structure reduces friction. It improves compliance. It fosters trust between government and enterprise. It allows businesses to expand across state boundaries without encountering fiscal fragmentation.
Equally significant was Oyedele’s institutional message. His admonition, “Let us stop using consultants to collect taxes. It undermines our ability to do what is right,” struck at the heart of a long-standing governance weakness. Reliance on external intermediaries often diluted institutional capacity and weakened accountability. By strengthening state internal revenue services, governors will not merely increase collections. They will strengthen the legitimacy and professionalism of their fiscal institutions.
The proposed voluntary disclosure scheme, offering amnesty for past non-compliance, adds a pragmatic dimension. Rather than punish informality punitively, it seeks to integrate it constructively. It recognises that sustainable tax systems are built on cooperation as much as enforcement.
What is emerging is not merely tax reform. It is the reassertion of fiscal sovereignty at the state level.
● Investing in People, Delivering at the Ward Level
Yet perhaps the most morally compelling dimension of the conference lay in its human focus.
President Tinubu articulated the philosophy succinctly: “When every state grows, Nigeria grows. When growth reaches the poorest households, national stability is strengthened.”
This statement was both economic doctrine and governance compass. It recognised that national prosperity could not exist in abstraction from local wellbeing. Development must be experienced, not merely announced.
The NEC communiqué translated this philosophy into concrete instruction. “There is an urgent need to ramp up investment in the social sectors, education, health and nutrition.”
This directive carries enormous weight. Social sectors represent the frontline of governance. They are where citizens encounter the state most directly, in classrooms, clinics, and employment opportunities. Chronic underinvestment in these areas has historically produced consequences that extend beyond statistics into social stability itself.
By elevating human capital investment to a central priority, the NEC provided governors not only with policy guidance but also with political reinforcement. It created collective momentum. No governor would act alone. All would move within a shared national framework.
Complementing this approach was the emphasis on the Renewed Hope Ward Development Project, an initiative designed to ensure that development penetrates the most granular administrative unit. This ward-level orientation represents a subtle but profound shift. It recognises that national transformation does not occur in capital cities alone. It occurs in villages, communities, and neighbourhoods where citizens live their daily realities.
It also strengthens accountability. Development that reaches wards is development that can be seen, measured, and evaluated by citizens themselves.
● Governors Gain Practical Toolkit for Federalism
Beyond specific policy outcomes, the conference functioned as an arena of shared learning and mutual accountability. Governors compared strategies for unlocking agricultural potential in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, expanding mineral development in the North-East, and deepening tourism and maritime opportunities in the South-South. These exchanges were not theoretical exercises. They were practical explorations of comparative advantage.
The emphasis on collaboration with the private sector and development partners further expanded the horizon of possibility. Federal reforms have established macroeconomic guardrails. The Renewed Hope National Development Plan 2026 to 2030 provides strategic direction. The responsibility now shifts decisively to subnational governments to drive implementation.
This division of labour reflects the true logic of federalism. National stability creates the platform. State leadership delivers the outcome.
In the final analysis, the success of the NEC conference lies precisely in its operational clarity. It does not content itself with rhetorical aspiration. It provides governors with fiscal predictability, institutional reform pathways, and a renewed mandate to invest in their people.
As they depart Abuja for their respective states, from inland agrarian communities to coastal commercial hubs, governors carry with them more than federal encouragement. They carry a practical toolkit for transformation.
This is how nations advance. Not through declarations only, but also through disciplined execution across every tier of governance. Not through central authority only, but also through empowered subnational leadership. And not through abstract growth figures, but through prosperity that reaches citizens where they live.
● Tony Ovbosa is a managing editor at THE CONCLAVE online newspaper.
