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Last Updated: Thursday, November 11th, 2004 HOME | Previous Page
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Achebe as a moral compass (2)
Chijioke Nwankwo
Continued from Tuesday
It is clear that Ogunlewe´s motives and those of his masters are far from being genuine and altruistic. The
Onitsha-Owerri road project has exposed the real character of the works minister and his bosses at Abuja. It has
underscored the level of hatred and contempt that the administration has for the people of Anambra state and the
Igbos in general. Against popular choice and advice, the federal government awarded the contract to CCC instead
of the well-known Julius Berger company. CCC got the contract at half the estimated cost submitted by Julius Berger.
President Obasanjo used the road project for political purposes when he came to flag it off. Flag-off indeed! That
flag is still there. Curiously, the contract was stated to be for an extended period of three years. We folded
our hands and prayed that the three years will come to pass one day. Now, what do we hear? Ogunlewe has said that
the contract will last for ten years. He said that the contractors are not serious. But he does not mention anything
about revocation of the contract. He also blamed members of the South �east caucus of the National Assembly for
not fighting for the release of funds for the project. It has since emerged that Ogunlewe was merely pussy-footing
and fooling himself. Igwe Alex Nwokedi, an interest holder in CCC, has given a lie to the minister´ s nonsensical
effusion. He asserted that the government has not fully released the mobilisation sum of eight billion naira as
agreed in the contract. Furthermore, Igwe Nwokedi revealed that CCC had written to the works minister asking for
approval to carry out the project with its own funds. No answer was given to the company. This explains why the
minister is only interested in making irresponsible and unguarded comments about the road project.
Achebe singled out his ´home state´ of Anambra which he laments has fallen into the hands of a ´small
clique of renegades´. The July 10th 2003 abduction of Governor Chris Ngige presented an opportunity for
the president to rise above pettiness and primordial antipathies. He looked away and earned the badge of suspicion
for complicity in the debacle. The failed coup was termed a ´family affair´ by the ruling Peoples´
Democratic Party(PDP). It expelled Chris Ubah and other members of his clique. These men, despite their supposed
expulsion from the PDP, have been handed the party machinery in Anambra state. The new Chairman of the party was
a key participant in the failed plot to unseat Governor Chris Ngige. Achebe said there was either complicity, collusion
or connivance by the presidency in the Anambra saga. Can you fault that assertion? Despite persistent avowals to
the contrary, there are lots of telling signs of the partisan interests of the Presidency in the saga.
Instead of facing trial and prosecution, Chris Ubah and his band of mercenaries went about bragging that the worst
was yet to come. Their confidence and bravado manifested in many instances. They chased the governor´ s convoy
off the highway at Awka less than two kilometres to the governor´ s lodge. It is, perhaps, apt to remind
the reader that Chris Ubah ´s mobile police detail is enough to form a platoon command. The ´clique
of renegades´ procured- or rather purchased- a salacious court order from Justice Egbo-Egbo with which they
made another futile attempt to dislodge the governor. While the rest of the country was swamped with Christmas
festivities, this clique propositioned Justice Nnaji who handed them the poisoned chalice of a court order directing
the Inspector-general of police to �remove Dr. Chris Ngige in the same manner that he put him in office� after
the July 10th failed putsch. Egbo-Egbo and Nnaji, co-travellers on the highway of infamy, have been consigned to
permanent ignominy by the National Judicial Council.
In September 2004, the leader of the ´clique of renegades´, Chris Ubah, told the Anambra session of
the World Igbo Congress that he single-handedly altered the electoral results in the last elections that produced
Governor Ngige. He specifically said that PDP did not win elections in Anambra state. We take it that he also altered
the results to give victory to Obasanjo against the favourite home candidate, Emeka Ojukwu. This ´strategic´
service rendered by Chris Ubah might explain his sacred cow status. It is also the basis for his continued retention
as the leader of the PDP caucus in the South-east in spite of the expulsion order still hanging on his neck. It
is now clear that the perceptive elder statesman, Sunday Awoniyi, knew what he was saying when he referred to the
PDP as �the company of the ungodly�. Today, Ngige goes about without police escorts. Even with police escorts,
prominent Nigerians like Governor Akume came within a hair´s breath of losing their lives. The police authorities
have refused to restore the security detail of the governor in spite of the order of the Court of Appeal to that
effect. The Attorney-general of the federation, Mr Olujimi, has advised the police to ignore the order of the Court
of Appeal which restrained the impertinent orders of Justice Nnaji. Is this not a sign of complicity? Is it connivance?
Or collusion?
The foregoing represent only but a slice of the malady that has enveloped Nigeria. They are visible signs of rot,
decay and perfidy. These sordid situations should gnaw at the heart of any responsible Nigerian. They ought to
bother anyone who still has love and regard for his country. They have bothered Achebe, and he chose to speak out.
He did not visit the Villa at night to be ´settled´ by the government. He chose to lift the torch on
our dirt. He pointed at our failures. He laments our lost hopes and dreams. He seeks to challenge us to struggle
to do better than we are doing at the moment. That is what patriotism is all about. Away from the penchant for
chicanery and double-speak, Achebe set a moral tone against our debilitating enterprise called Nigeria. I certainly
agree with Fani-Kayode that Achebe does not deserve Nigeria. Achebe does not deserve a Nigeria of failed dreams.
He does not deserve a Nigeria which has become the emblematic paradigm for hunger, corruption, fraud, murder, intrigues
and treachery. Achebe does not deserve a Nigeria that matches, irrevocably, towards fascism.
Fani-Kayode´ s exhibition of idiocy ran riot when he made an obtuse reference to awards from Sweden and other
places. His attempt to raise the issue of the Nobel prize which Achebe has not won is one more step into rascality
and irresponsibility. Charlatans like Fani-Kayode are too inconsequential to detract from the peerless status of
Achebe. Achebe ´s son, Chidi, a Harvard-trained medical director in the United States, is much more pre-eminent
than Fani-kayode. The young man has a big job in a competitive setting like the United states. He does not need
to start off criticising Obasanjo as a �deluded leader with Saulian anointing� in order to land an indeterminate
job at Aso Rock. Fani-Kayode ´s reference to the Nobel prize and other asinine vituperations that always
proceed from his mouth show that he is someone who was invited to �come and chop�(apologies to Sunday Afolabi).
In any case, Achebe remains in the hearts and minds of people who should know as the eagle perched at the apogee
of the iroko.
The best response to Achebe would be to appraise his remarks constructively with a view to improving the quality
of life of the average Nigerian. Name-calling from characters like Fani-kayode will serve no purpose.
Concluded
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