Nigeria’s stated ambition to achieve a $1 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030 (or any proximate horizon) is one of the most audacious economic targets ever set by an African nation. Nevertheless, after more than six decades of independence, the country continues to grapple with chronic underachievement, institutional brittleness, and political turbulence. This conceptual paper contends that the root cause of this persistent failure is the absence of Nigeria’s first coherent, unifying, and operational national ideology—one that seamlessly integrates political philosophy with economic doctrine. Drawing on an extensive qualitative literature review, historical-comparative analysis, and critical policy examination, the study explains why no such ideology has emerged since 1960, how its absence perpetuates prebendal and rentier pathologies, and why the trillion-dollar goal will remain illusory without it. Comparative cases—the liberal-capitalist ideology of the United States and the totalitarian mobilisation ideology of Nazi Germany—illustrate the transformative power of ideological clarity. The paper concludes with a detailed roadmap for constructing and institutionalising Nigeria’s first authentic national ideology.

 Keywords: National Ideology, Political Economy, Developmental State, Prebendalism, $1 Trillion Economy