ion Party (P.O.P.) and theopposition Progressive Alliance Party (P.A.P.). Apart from the comic implications of P.O.P. and P.A.P., there is the moreserious implied question of a lack of real political alternatives. The point that any party can govern, that nothing will really bechanged, is appreciated by the ex-policeman who sees the C.P.C. group (the 'new' force of Max and Odili) as merelycompleting a trilogy of vultures who feast on the body politic.11 Another contradiction raised in Achebe's text is that betweenthe apparent reality of Nigerian independence and the continuing influence of the former colonial power. When Odili speaks ofthe necessity for 'clean' election tactics, Max replies with a question: Do you know, Odili, that British Amalgamated has paid out four hundred thousand pounds to P.O.P. to fight this election? Now you tell me how you propose to fight such a dirty war without soiling your hands a little. (p. 142)The essential dilemma - the necessity for political effectiveness opposed to a felt need for honesty and integrity - is projectedhere within the neo-colonialist frame of reference.In terms of the socio-political contradictions that are being considered, particularly at the level of stated ideas, there is apassage in Man of the People that can be regarded as the ideological core (or thematic centrepiece) of the work. It is markedby Achebe's use of the logic of the proverb. Odili, in a period of thoughtful reflection, considers the overall position. He definesit in terms of a man who has just come in from the rain, dried himself and put on new clothes. That man, thinks Odili, is morereluctant to go out again than another who has been indoors all the time. By metaphoric extension, he sees this as the troublewith the new nation "that none of us had been indoors long enough to be able to say 'To hell with it'." He sees the people ashaving been all in the rain together until yesterday (Independence) and then ...
