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Unlike most incoming Nigerian governors, Shettima inherited a state treasury in surplus rather than debt: outgoing Governor Ali Modu Sheriff handed over roughly ₦67 billion in savings at the end of his tenure in May 2011, reportedly the largest such handover among his contemporaries.

The surplus gave Shettima’s administration fiscal headroom heading into a tenure that would soon be dominated by the costs of the Boko Haram insurgency and mass displacement.