Heads of local government answer to him; a quarter of the country's oil revenue goes to them.

This year the expenditure will be covered by oil revenue.

It receives money through ransoms, oil revenue, tax, racketeering and looted antiquities.

His feather-bedding of cronies, his suppression of critics and his rigging of elections were accepted as long as government seemed halfway competent and committed to redistributing oil revenue.

With a growing middle class demanding its share of the pie, and oil revenue shrinking, the pressure to scale back the huge expense of its regional ambitions will only intensify.