This book argues that the national refrain 'there is no money' is an illusion, using Nigeria as a central case study. It examines how money, value creation, and engineered poverty operate, proposing a value-first economics framework grounded in natural resources, knowledge, and labour. The preface and foreword set the stage, while the table of contents outlines four parts: the grand illusion,…
The Illusion of Scarcity is a book by Faruq Adeyemi that challenges the common belief that national scarcity is inevitable. It is written for citizens, economists, policymakers, and the diaspora who question official economic narratives, particularly in Nigeria and Africa. The book argues that 'there is no money' is an engineered illusion, not a natural fact.
The foreword by Omoyele Sowore introduces the book's central question: why a richly endowed nation like Nigeria continues to produce poverty at industrial scale. It praises the work for dismantling myths about money and inflation, and for offering a value-first economics framework based on natural resources, knowledge, and labour.
The preface expands on the global pattern of engineered scarcity, citing examples from Latin America, South Asia, the Global South, and advanced economies. It explains that money is a social technology, not wealth itself, and that real value comes from transforming natural resources through knowledge and labour. The book uses Nigeria as a primary case study, with references to the Spanish Empire, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Ethiopia, and China.
The table of contents reveals the book's structure: Part I covers the grand illusion, including the myth of 'no money', social engineering of poverty, and the failure of Nigerian economists. Part II explores value and money, with chapters on money's intrinsic value, the three pillars of value, and the history of money. Part III addresses money creation, circulation, and inflation, including recirculation, real causes of inflation, and generating money according to national needs. Part IV…
The book's introduction and subsequent chapters are not fully provided in the given text, but the preface indicates it will examine how the scarcity illusion is constructed, why it persists, and how it can be dismantled. The work insists that prosperity is the predictable result of deliberate value creation, leakage control, and productive recirculation of money, rather than managing scarcity.