Adekeye Adebajo, Adewale Adebanwi, David Easterbrook, Marilyn Glanfield, Simon Stevens, Megan Vaughan, and Ruth Watson have helped me in preparing this book. I am grateful to the staff of the National Archives, Kew; University Library, African Studies Centre Library, and St John's College Library, Cambridge; Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London; Commonwealth Secretariat, London; Library of Congress; Herskovits Memorial Africana Library, Northwestern University; and Bayero University Library, Kano. The book draws heavily on Nigeria's lively political press. I am especially indebted to the work of Reuben Abati, Olusegun Adeniyi, Dare Babarinsa, Ray Ekpu, and Stanley Macebuh, both for political analysis and for the pleasure of reading good journalism.

In this book I have tried to understand General Obasanjo, which I believe to be the chief task of a biographer. Although I spent a period in Nigeria during his tenure as military head of state, I have not approached him in writing the book. My African travelling days are over and he is a busy man who has never been slow to tell his own story in print. I hope, however, that it will be clear to him and others that I write with respect.