After earning a first class honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at Hertford College, Oxford in 1957, he returned to Lagos (he had previously been conscripted to the Nigeria Regiment in Lagos from 1953 to 1954 for his British national service[5]) to become first Editor of Nigeria Magazine in 1959.
[5] Michael commenced his career as a secretary at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan.
In 1964 he was Visiting Lecturer in African History at the University of California, Berkeley and Director of the Institute of African Studies at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone in 1965.
He worked as an editor for the British Magazine History Today after his return to London in 1979.
He was also Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at the LSE, and Professor of History at the University of Botswana in the 1980s while he worked as a Consultant Editor until his death.