This book is therefore partly a biography of a man, Adegoke Adelabu; much more though, it tells in a highly personal and intriguing way how a Nigerian politician operated in the last years of colonial rule. The story of Adelabu's life is an interesting one. He is an example of one of the 'new men' who led African nations to independence in the fifties and sixties. His family was not closely connected with the traditional chieftainships of his native city, Ibadan, but he was sufficiently well placed to take advantage of such secondary school education as was available to African boys in the thirties. After a number of vicissitudes, involving abortive careers as a government official, working for one of the big British trading concerns and on his own account, Adelabu found his role as a popular leader and 'boss' of Ibadan politics.

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