A Platter of Gold is an exciting, epic colonial biography of a nation. How did Nigeria come to be a nation?

Over the course of fifty-four years, till the eve of Independence, eight colonial proconsul Governors for the British Empire pitched wit, passion and guile against under-celebrated, sometimes everyday Nigerians: Ahmadu Attahiru I, the Sokoto Caliph and his cavalry, who violently resisted British ouster and occupation, Eleko and the Lagos Chieftains, Who first claimed they would “rather die than pay tax”; Nwanyeruwa of Oloko and her intelligent trio who said, “We will not pay tax till the world ends”; the scores of women of Opobo who led the women’s war against taxation; Alimotu Pelewura and the market women who would not “sell their country” for personal gain, but instead asked for free trade; Michael Imoudu and his workers’ union, who paralysed the nation’s economy under a general strike for native workers’ rights and equality; Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and the Abeokuta Women’s Union, who demanded native participation in government and seamen’s liberation; and the miners of Iva Valley, Enugu, including the twenty-one killed, echo mounted a go-slow strike for equal treatment and respect for natives in their work place.

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