Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta is about the character, Adah Ofili, and her life struggles. The narrative’s storyline is split into three sections.The first section recounts Adah’s childhood and, subsequently, her desire to be educated. The second section depicts her marriage and her tribulations as a married woman.Finally, the final half depicts her life in London, where she faces racial prejudice and ongoing slavery at the hands of her husband, Francis.

The story begins with Adah as a small child in Nigeria in the 1950s. Adah Ofili, the main character, is the daughter of an Ibo from Ibuza, Nigeria, who lives in Lagos. She was born around World War II. Because she is a girl, her family believes she does not require a western education, although her younger brother is sent to school.

Adah is brilliant, yet she knows at an early age that she wishes to be educated. She also wishes to move to the United Kingdom someday. Ignoring the fact that education for girls is less common in her household, Adah attends school in secrecy. Her parents thrashed her yet still allowed her to go. Adah was taken to live with her uncle’s household when her father passed away. She discreetly enrols in high school and, even after being thrashed for it again, earns a scholarship owing to her excellent entrance exam score.

Adah’s family pressures her to marry when she reaches marriageable age, but she only agrees when she realises, she needs a spouse and a home to continue her education. She married Francis, a calm and nice man, and works as a librarian. Because of Adah’s employment, the couple has a stable income at the time, and Francis comes to believe that she must work and support him.

Adah’s suggestion that they go to England is accepted by Francis. He first studies accounting, and Adah persuades her in-laws to just let her accompany him following the birth of her second pregnancy. Adah realises in London that things are not quite as she imagined. Francis rented a home to reside in a disadvantaged area with other Nigerian immigrants, and warns her that they can’t possibly expect anything better since they are second-class people. The welfare situation is flawed, and the English Adah meets is frequently sloppy and crude.

Nevertheless, Adah’s status plummeted as low and as flat as the ground in Liverpool, London, but nothing resembled her typical existence in Nigeria. Adah had to contend with racial prejudice, bad living conditions, and a slacker and abusive partner. She also had the obligation of feeding her five children while earning alone to support the family.

Adah lives as a second-class citizen in the UK, hiring a babysitter for her kids. She faces yet another problem when the babysitter mismanages and neglects her kids, forcing her to enrol them in a nursery. Adah and Francis are faced with eviction from their tiny house as the narrative progresses. They experience racial prejudice and are unable to stop it. Adah gets a job as a librarian to support her family. Her spouse lounges about, refusing to study or work while verbally and physically assaulting her. She becomes pregnant again and gives birth alone. She chooses to use the contraceptive covertly, however Francis catches her and beats her for it. Adah becomes expectant once more, and her husband becomes increasingly aggressive. She attempts to stand and fight, encouraging him to look for a job, and ultimately decides that she will not continue to support him since her kids come first. Adah seeks court intervention and requests protection; Francis is ordered to stay away from Adah and the kids and to pay child support.

While all of this was going on, Francis became extremely assertive to his wife, Adah, and the kids. Francis detests Mr. Okpara, a colleague lgbo in England, and tells him that a guy who just doesn’t bother about his children’s upbringing would soon realise that he has lost his masculinity. He is also disdainful of Adah’s ambitions to become a writer. Francis’s depravity reaches a pinnacle when he sets a fire to Adah’s manuscripts for her book, which she identifies as her brainchild which turned out to be the beginning of the end. Adah left her marriage with nothing other than her kids and the fifth pregnancy.