Punch Newspapers Sections Published 3 March 2021 IN an era blighted by economic recessions and general malaise, the recent declaration by Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank Group, on the imperative of economic restructuring enlivens the debate about the fundamental weaknesses hobbling the Nigerian state. Calling for transformation, the erstwhile Minister of Agriculture traced the current seismic downturn in the country to the upside-down political structure in which the states depend primarily on the sharing from the centre for their income. “The union would be stronger when restructured,” he said. This is sound, logical and rational because Nigeria is a natural federation, but is unscientifically practising an economically centralised, unworkable and politically unsustainable federal structure.