President and Power in Nigeria - Paperback

by David Williams (Author)

First published in 1982. This is the biography of Alhaji Shehu Shagari of Nigeria, Africa's most populous state and the world's third biggest democracy. He was elected in 1979, against four opponents, in the election which signified the peaceful end of thirteen and a half years of military rule. Alhaji Shehu was the first boy from Shagari, founded in what is now Sokoto State by his ancestors 170 years ago, to go to secondary school. Education has remained one of his main interests throughout a political career which included many ministerial posts. Thoughtful, scholarly and conciliatory he is now a world figure. The book presents the man and his policies against the lively political, social and economic background of a country of eighty million people, which is among the world's six most important oil exporters.

Author Biography

David Williams was editor of the weekly W esc Africa from 1949 to 1978. He is now consultant to the fortnightly NigeriaNewsleccer, and a director of West Africa Publishing Company. An Oxford graduate, he served with West Africans in Ethiopia in the I 939-45 war