This paper is an account of the earliest attempt in Africa to make education available to all within the context of what has been called fundamental education or a mass education programme. The paper draws attention to how the demand for mass education during the Second World War years was met by the British government, which, following what…

Concludes that a Mass Literacy Campaign in a complex political setting in a nation such as Nigeria, devoid of ideological orientation and lacking in a popularist approach to the elimination of illiteracy, has limited chances of success despite the attractions and merit of a literate citizenry. (JOW)

The history of the literacy campaigns in Nigeria is the story of attempts made to focus on the importance of education outside the school walls and to make it a vehicle of social, political, and economic change. (Author/SK)