A Man of the People (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Chinua Achebe

First published 1966

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4.3(374)

Odili Samalu, a young teacher, is reunited with Chief M. A. Nanga, his former schoolmaster and now the charismatic Minister of Culture. Nanga presents himself as a defender of ordinary people while using public office to distribute favours, enrich allies and turn politics into personal patronage. Odili initially accepts the minister’s hospitality, but rivalry, humiliation and anger draw him from private resentment into open opposition.

As Odili joins a reform party and prepares to contest Nanga’s seat, bribery, intimidation and electoral violence expose how thoroughly public institutions have been captured by those in power. The novel’s fictional state closely reflects the instability of Nigeria’s First Republic, and its ending appeared strikingly prophetic when military officers overthrew the civilian government shortly after publication. Achebe’s satire links personal vanity to the wider collapse of democratic accountability.