Inside Independent Nigeria: Diaries of Wolfgang Stolper, 1960-1962

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The edited diary of one of the first Western economists to serve as an adviser in the government of an independent African country. It gives a brutally frank appraisal of Nigeria's then political leaders and the economists, local and foreign, who sought to shape the country's development policies and to write its first Five-Year Development Plan. It anticipates many of the problems that afflicted Nigeria from the mid-1960s on, highlighting statist interference in the economy, corruption and the waste of development resources.

About the Author:About the Editors: Clive S. Gray, Dr, Senior Fellow in Development, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA and Wolfgang F. Stolper, deceased, Professor of Economics Emeritus, formerly of the University of Michigan, USA

SYNOPSIS

Economist Wolfgang Stolper was invited by Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Economic Development to participate in the formation of the five- year plan being developed on the eve of the country's independence from British colonial rule. He spent some 16 months in the country, keeping a diary of his activities and impressions in the form of letters to his wife back in the United States. This edited version of that diary, excising nearly a fourth of the material in order to avoid repetition of housekeeping details or social functions, presents both personal and professional reflections of the Western academic's time in the country. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Paul A. Samuelson

There have been many Western economic advisors to governments in the developing world, but few have attempted to record their experience and make it accessible to others. Wolfgang Stolper, one of America's most distinguished economists, kept a detailed diary of his experience as an advisor to Nigeria at the beginning of the 1960s. The diary is rich in detail about Nigeria at that time and about the daily work of an economic advisor. It will be of interest to anyone interested in Africa in particular and technical assistance in the developing world in general.

Dwight H. Perkins

Full of vivid detail and candid commentary, Wolfgang F. Stolper's diary provides an unusually full picture of the inner workings of Nigerian policy-making and the daily experiences of a foreign economic advisor in Nigeria in the early years of Independence.