Odili overhears part of the conversation and learns that Nanga prefers to work with Europeans instead of local experts, and that there’s something he’s keeping out of the press. Nanga returns for lunch and has a phone meeting with the Minister of Public Construction, T.C. He’s glad for this, as he thinks it would be indecorous to entertain women-particularly a friend named Elsie with whom he hopes to be intimate-while Mrs. Nanga and the children will leave Bori and return to Anata, Nanga’s home village. He talks with her about Edna and admires Nanga’s home, deciding that if he should ever become minister, he would like to stay in the role indefinitely. Odili and Nanga return to Nanga’s home, where Odili speaks with Nanga’s wife, who is referred to as Mrs. As it turns out, the coffee isn’t poisoned-it’s just a different type of coffee, because his cook ran out of his favorite brand. However, before they can begin to discuss Odili’s scholarship, Koko drinks some coffee and becomes convinced that he has been poisoned.

They go to visit Chief Koko, the Minister of Overseas Training. Odili travels to Bori in Chapter Three to stay with Nanga, who offers Odili a warm welcome and his own room in his house. Later, Odili’s friend, Andrew, visits him, and they talk about girls, particularly Edna, a young girl who was with Nanga, whom he intends to make his second wife. He mentions to Nanga wanting to return to school, and Nanga invites Odili to stay with him in the capital, Bori, so that he might talk with the Minister of Overseas Training about his scholarship. In Chapter Two, Odili explains why he chose to become a teacher, believing the post offers him more autonomy than working as a civil servant.

A man of the people by chinua achebe