This paper is a brief historical overview of certain aspects of radical, Left‐wing politics in Nigeria in the 40 years between 1945 and 1985. It traces the origins, growth and nature of the radical struggle for some form of socialist transformation in the country and attempts to identify the strengths and weaknesses of some of the organisations that were established at various times since 1945 for the attainment of this goal. The myth that there is as yet no Left politics in Nigeria is false. By the end of the Second World War, when the nationalist struggle for independence attained its peak, radical activism both within and outside the trade union movement had started in earnest and has been growing since then, taking various forms, as the contradictions of the capitalist development process in Nigeria deepen. As politicians of all shades begin to gear themselves in readiness for the proposed transfer of power from the military government to civilians in 1990, the Nigerian Left can look back to a heritage, with both positive and negative aspects, which we attempt to pin‐point in the course of our discussion. The crucial question is how the positive aspects of that heritage can be harnessed and extended in order to advance the struggle for socialism and how the errors of the past are to be avoided in the run‐up to 1990.