lapulpeta on Nostr: The followings list is local to each client. Most clients send their list to relays, ...

The followings list is local to each client. Most clients send their list to relays, so other clients (or even itself later) can pick it up. In most cases this means that your followings list is in sync between different clients, but things go awry if you update your list in client A and then update it again in client B before B gets to see A's change.
The followers list is also local to each client but this one doesn't exist as a list on the relays. Your client sees other people's followings lists and tells you how many are following you. This number can vary greatly depending on the relays you are connected to.