For a country that should be celebrating its economic potential, Nigeria finds itself trapped in a financial nightmare of its own making. The 2026 budget, approved at a staggering N68.32 trillion, is the country's largest fiscal blueprint in history. Yet this record expenditure tells a story not of national progress, but of systematic fiscal collapse. The single largest line item is not a new superhighway, a modern hospital, or a better-equipped military. It is an obscene tribute to past failures: N15.81 trillion for debt servicing. [...]