25th March, 2013
P.M.NEWS editorial on the passage of Chinua Achebe
Was he a man of the people or the light of his ethnic group? This question even though asked in hushed tones has been the unvoiced discourse among Nigerians since news filtered last week that Professor Chinua Achebe passed on in the United States of America where he was based. For sure, the tributes that have been pouring in in torrents from across the globe, place Achebe on the same pedestal as all statesmen of international repute who fought to emancipate their immediate communities, countries and humanity at large from the shackles of illiteracy, want and social disempowerment.
In life, the eminent professor was an enigma of sorts. His contribution to the development of African literature is immeasurable. Besides the publication of Things Fall Apart, unarguably the most popular novel in the literature of the continent in 1958, his editorship of African Writers Series, AWS, unleashed a horde of budding writing talents in the continent, thus berthing what has been tagged Africa’s most fecund period of creative writing. On a personal level, his world-acclaimed works like No Longer At Ease, A Man of The People, Anthills of The Savanna, Girls At War, The Education Of the British Colonised Child, Beware Soul Brother, There Was A Country, among others, capture our nation and continent in a battle to wriggle out of the long-term oppression that it has suffered for centuries.
Achebe was certainly not just a writer perched on writing table while his nation melted under political maladministration. Gifted with a loud voice that could grip international attention, the reverent professor intervened intermittently in national issues when some forces of retardation seemed bent on dragging the nation to the brink of disintegration. We recall, for example, how he teamed up with Professors Wole Soyinka and JP Clark-Bekederemo, two of Nigeria’s first generation literary avatars, to plead with General Ibrahim Babagida, then head of a military dictatorship to spare General M. Vatsa who was implicated in a military coup. Although their plea went unheeded, the three indeed made their mark.
He also had same confrontations with the governments of Generals Abacha and Obasanjo. From the latter, he rejected a national honour of Commander of the Ferderal Republic, CFR. Perhaps, it is his documentation of the nagging problem of leadership in Nigeria, captured in The Trouble With Nigeria, in which he discusses the leadership crises in the country since independence, that best describes his effort at burnishing his country’s socio-political image. We acknowledge his unfaltering effort even at great peril to his health, to constantly educate humanity, through public lectures, talk-shops and workshops and seminars on the need to inculcate sound fundamental leadership ethos as a prelude to having peace and global harmony.
Irrespective of what hagiographers may say, Achebe, like every human being had his flaws. Others have detected shortcomings in his worldview. Yet many more observe that he was too obsessed with his ethnic group to a point that he cared little less about its neigbours. Whatever it is, we believe that the iconoclastic intellectual played his role well. There may have been issues with his tactics but certainly it does not detract from his contribution to the general wellbeing of humanity.
Apart from occupying a prime place in the heart of artists anWith the departure of this noble soul, it is time for us to engage in self-examination as a nation. The recent hoopla raised following the publication of his personal memoir in which he partly explained his thoughts on the Biafra war should form a basis for our political engagement. Nigerians must learn to shun intellectual parochialism, as we take out the valuable material from the book, while letting out what we don’t desire. It is time to accelerate the process of true reconciliation. The spate of bombings, killing in parts of the country, kidnappings, political discontent are indicative of the fact that all is not well with our country. Nigeria has come a long way through turbulence, it is time to sheathe swords of ethnicity, religion, tribe and tongue and instead embrace those values that can lead us to self-actualisation as a people.