PRESIDENT of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina, has called for economic restructuring of Nigeria and suggested a United States of Nigeria or Commonwealth of Nigeria to have a more viable nation.
Adesina made the declaration at the second term inauguration lecture of Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, in Akure, Tuesday, titled: Towards A New Nigeria: From Federal Fatherism To A Common Wealth.
He faulted Nigeria’s federalism, saying it was essentially a revenue sharing system compared to the United States of America federal system.
The AfDB president argued that Nigeria’s system of government was a federalism of fiscal dependency, as most states of the federation have abundant resources that remain largely untapped due to bureaucracy.
“That is the irony of Nigeria’s states. They are poor in the midst of plenty. They do not maximally explore or leverage what they already have in abundance. The Federal system of monthly grants or allocations, as they call it, has paralysed them.
“Our kind of federalism is fiscally unhealthy for the states and the Federal Government and it does not grow its constituent entities. It simply makes them perpetually dependent,” he said.
Adesina, who advocated more accountability and transparency, also decried some draconian tax administration by state governments across the country, lamenting that Nigerians pay one of the highest implicit taxes globally.
