The work which appears in the following pages was originally drafted as a short
essay intended for publication in a Nigerian journal. When the manuscript was shown to
some friends it was suggested that, because of the political importance of the subject, it
should be revised, expanded and prepared for publication as a pamphlet. This was duly
done. It was then that the present publishers were contacted. At their suggestion, the
manuscript was further expanded and revised, and finally re-written completely, resulting in
the present volume.
Throughout the period of development of this work (December 1978 to May 1980)
the author tried to maintain two elements of its original character: its polemical form and its
political objective.