USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: PRESS STATEMENT ON BOOK LAUNCH

PRESS STATEMENT ON BOOK LAUNCH

RICH COUNTRY POOR PEOPLE: New Book on Nigeria to be Launched on Thursday,15th May, 2014 @ NECA HOUSE, Alausa,Lagos.

A New book on Nigeria titled Rich Country Poor People; Nigeria's Story of Poverty in the Midst of Plenty devoted to the paradox of Nigeria's impressive growth rate side by side its deepening poverty will be launched at NECA House in Alausa Ikeja Lagos at 10:00am.The book is authored by Prof. Banji Oyelaran Oyeyinka, the most senior director/chief scientific Advisor and Nigerian at the United Nations Headquarters in Nairobi.

Expected at the launch are serving and former governors across the nation, members of the business and diplomatic communities, academics, policy makers, politicians amongst others. The book explains why Nigeria's high growth rate does not translate into improved living standards for the majority of its people; but rather dramatic increases in its poverty and inequality levels. In the first rate study devoted to the tragedy of Nigeria's non inclusive growth, the author who is also an Adjunct Professor of Innovation and Development at the United Nations University, Maastricht in the Netherlands argues that "The problem is not so much that development has failed, has that it was not really on the agenda in the first place". Oyeyinka went on to say that "The agenda which will promote the greater good of the greatest number has not always been leadership priority. The nature of perverse politics is proved so poignantly by the rising poverty far above levels of 10 years earlier and significantly by the trend of seemingly unbreachable gap between the rich and the poor". Oyeyinka maintains that Nigeria need not continue along the current, unsustainable path; rather its leaders should begin to build trust by delivering the development agenda of wiping away mass poverty, closing the inequality gap and reducing mass unemployment which has become a scary time bomb. Policy makers and the nation's planners as well as the political elite will find the book extremely useful considering its wealth of policy recommendations that is capable of jumpstarting Nigeria's development and ending the current era of lopsided, disarticulated and non-inclusive growth.

This announcement serves as an invitation to the media and the general public

Signed

Prof. Ayo Olukotun

Secretary, Organizing Committee