ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Glenn Johnson and his colleagues at Michigan State University (MSU) sought not only to predict, but also shape Nigeria's future. The chapter explains the state of economic planning in Nigeria at the time of the country's independence, paying close attention to Wolfgang Stolper's account of his time at the head of Nigeria's Economic Planning Unit. It continues with a discussion of the field work of the Consortium for Nigerian Rural Development (CSNRD) in the context of widespread disorder and civil war in Nigeria. The Nigerian Agricultural Sector Simulation (NASS) model, conversely, enjoyed a great deal of success in Nigerian policy circles. Indeed, a long-term agricultural planning document produced by the Nigerian military government in 1974 used the NASS model to understand the prospects of the national economy. American involvement in the Nigerian national economy began soon after Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
