This book relates the life experiences of a Nigerian engineer and retired university teacher who considers himself a member of the "wasted generation". Trained shortly after political independence in 1960, in hope of positive and specific contributions to national development but made redundant by lack of continuity, political focus, and globalization. Underdevelopment is a creeping process, backwardness a choice, resource poverty not a serious hindrance. The desire to belong in a world that drags you along is a most debilitating complex noted among some countries of Africa. Similar issues were outlined throughout the book in the hope that honest and truthful presentation might deliver the real message. Corruption is haphazard redistribution of resources that may lead to accidental but not a deliberately structured development. Nigerian resources are mostly in Nigerian hands but not being used for desired Nigerian aspirations. Neither a waste, nor strictly a loss.
About the Author: The Fawole family is of Ijesha stock, of the compound of Oyebon in Ibokun, emigrated to Ibadan sometime between 1870 and 1880. Grandfather, Ezekiel, was an early Christian evangelist and as a sawyer, timber merchant, had contacts with many villages in Ibadan Province. He finally acquired farmlands, married the daughter of a village head, and settled at Odetoyan village. His second son, Otolorin, had three years of schooling ("ABD"/Ijapa/Class II) and was the secretary of the farmers union comprising the villages in Ona Ara Local government from 1947 - 1988. The author, Lawrence Fawole, was born in that village on December 25, 1938 and had his early education, from primary to diplomate level, in Nigeria. Under a USAID sponsorship, he studied Agricultural Engineering at the California State Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo; and later at Iowa State University, Ames. He was a UNESCO adviser on Farm Mechanization at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, 1980/81 and at Sind Agriculture University, Tandojam, Pakistan 1982/83. He was also an adviser to the Faculty of Engineering, The Polytechnic Ibadan, 1987/88 and held a full-time appointment in the Department of Agronomy, University of Ibadan from 1971 - 1992. He is listed on the Who's Who in American Universities and Colleges 1967 and membership in Alpha Zeta (Agriculture -) and Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Fraternity). He has lived 16 years on Staten Island, New York, from where he writes his memoirs.