A Century-Old Divide Stymies Nigeria’s Quest to Raise Taxes

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has seen a key part of his economic reform agenda rebuffed by lawmakers, exposing a century-old fracture in national politics between the country’s wealthier Christian south and predominantly Muslim north.

That setback is pressuring a budget that’s also being strained by President Donald Trump’s trade war, which has collapsed the price for oil — the mainstay of the Nigerian economy — while thwarting Tinubu’s goal to boost revenue in Africa’s most-populous nation.

The country’s tax take as a share of gross domestic product is one of the lowest in the world at about 11%. Lifting ...