Presidency Denies Receiving Achebe's Letter
Writer reaffirms rejection, supports strikes and protests
National Honours
From Josephine Lohor in Abuja and Paul Ohia in Lagos with agency report
The Presidency yesterday stated that President Olusegun Obasanjo is yet to formally receive a letter from Professor Chinua Achebe rejecting the national honour of the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) to be accorded him.
But Achebe yesterday on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Network Africa news programme maintained that he actually rejected the national award as a protest against the worsening economic conditions in the country.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media Matters, Mrs Oluremi Oyo, speaking to State House Correspondents yesterday, said Achebe's rejection letter which has already been published in some newspapers has not reached President Obasanjo.
"This is about 1.30 p.m. (yesterday), Monday October 18, 2004, President Obasanjo has not received, as at this time, any letter from the respected Professor Achebe.
"What you read in the newspapers are comments from a government official that say it is well within the rights of Professor Achebe not to want an award that has been graciously given him by his nation," she said.
In a reaction to Achebe's letter, a presidential aide, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, had said Sunday the author's estimation of Nigeria's situation was not right.
"If you look at the problems in 1999 and the gains we have made, it does not suggest that things are different," Fani-Kayode said in an interview with the Punch.
"We are on our way to the promised land and we need as much encouragement as we can get from respected Nigerians like Achebe," he added.
But Mrs. Oyo said yesterday, "I am saying to you that as I am talking to you, the President has not received any letter from Professor Chinua Achebe.
"The award subsists but it is within the right of the professor not to accept. But again, the President has not received any letter. I have also not seen a copy of the letter."
Speaking on BBC yesterday Achebe said that Obasanjo bears primary responsibility of changing things for the better in the country.
The author of the famous novel Things Fall Apart which has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide said: "Nigeria is a country that does not work. Schools, universities, roads, hospitals, water, the economy, security, life."
Achebe added that he hoped that rejecting the Commander of the Federal Republic - Nigeria's second highest honour - would serve as a "wake-up call".
He also said that he hoped the recent wave of strikes and protests would continue until there is "change".
Achebe, had in a two-page letter to Obasanjo which was published in some newspapers, stated that "Nigeria's condition today under your watch is however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honour awarded me in the 2004 honours list."
Achebe, who noted that he was writing the letter "with a very heart," stated that "for sometime now, I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anam-bra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom.
"I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance of the Presidency."
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