Decolonizing Nigeria, 1945—1960: Politics, Power, and Personalities
Bearing both the professional and general readers in mind, Decolonizing Nigeria: Politics, Power, and Personalities is an innovative approach at crafting a popular history of a great moment in Nigeria’s history. The book is neatly organized into three parts. Part One focuses on the late colonial era’s driving forces to bring about self-determination for Nigeria. Part Two deals with the establishment of developmen¬tal institutions for self-government. Part Three is organized under the central theme of “Regionalism and Change,” highlighting the personalities of Nigeria’s most powerful nationalists: Bello, Azikiwe, and Awolowo in relation to how their careers accentuated the structures of regional differences. The final concluding chapter explains the post-independence tasking steps to deal with the “unfinished businesses” of decolonization. Aimed at a wider audience with a blend of grassroots and elitist positions, Decolonizing Nigeria is a monumental work, and a seminal contribution to understanding both the political economies and the geopolitics of the post-colonial multi-ethnic nation states in contemporary global village.
Toyin Falola occupies the Frances and Jacob Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at The University of Texas at Austin. A celebrated scholar of global stature, Falola has published numerous books, most recently, The African Diaspora: Slavery, Migration and Globalization.
Bola Dauda is an eminent public administrator and scholar. Widely published, Dr. Dauda’s writings have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and French. He is co-author of Representative Bureaucracy, Meritocracy, and Nation Building in Nigeria.