Author of Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy, Zainab Usman, believes the task of economic diversification is Nigeria’s foremost development challenge: ‘Nigeria needs to diversify its economy beyond reliance on oil exports, a large informal economy and small-scale agriculture to become a more modern and highly industrialized one that generates jobs, opportunities and self-actualization for the vast majority of Nigerians.’
Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, A Nation Divided. Buy the issue here.
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
Growing up, I read a wide range of books across most genres except for (auto)biographies. My earliest memories of reading are of English fairy tales and fables from the Lady Bird series as well as Enid Blyton. We read so many of those. The good thing is that mum wisely ensured that we also read children’s books from Nigerian authors; I have fond memories of reading Esther Bali’s Tarok folktales with lots of stories about the wily tortoise, and some books written by Mamman Vatsa—I cannot remember the book titles now. From around age twelve, I read my first James Hadley Chase and I was hooked. This marked my transition, in my teenage years, to reading books with serious themes of crime, thriller and horror, such as Sydney Sheldon, Ann Rice and the best of them all, Stephen King. I still love a good Stephen King book any day any time...
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