ALBERT Chinualumogu Achebe, 74, has experienced both fortunes and tragedies since that day when he was born to James, a catechist father of Anglican Church from Ogidi in Anambra State.
Like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe with whom he shares the same birthday of November 16, Achebe’s childhood prepared him for the challenges ahead. At 28, his first novel, Things Fall Apart, was published. It was one classic piece of literature that brought him immense fame and modest wealth.
In 1990, eminent scholars of note had gathered at the hilly University of Nigeria, Nsukka to celebrate his 60th birthday. Ever since then, he has been confined to a wheelchair since 1990, no thanks to a life-threatening motor accident on his way to Lagos. But that has not affected his commitment or concern for his country.
And at the celebration of his 70th birthday in the United States four years ago, the world did not conceal its recognition of this renowned novelist and master story teller as a man of courage.
On that occasion, Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa in a birthday message, recalled Achebe’s books he had read while imprisoned by the apartheid regime, and which he adored for the writer’s "fearless courage."
Kofi Annan, United Nation’s Secretary-General equally adored him for his "courageous public stand against many of the ills that afflict Africa..." Jimmy Carter, ex-US President described the celebrant as his "personal hero".
Yet, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, also an avowed critic of dictators like the man of the moment, was one of the biggest figures at the event. He praised his countryman’s "courage and commitment" while the Kenyan playwright, Ngugi wa Thiong’o brought along his grandchildren along who, at a point, climbed onto the stage to deliver a birthday card to Achebe.
He was on a wheelchair on this day. It was an emotional setting for him and his wife Christie. "It’s a funny feeling," he was to say of the celebrations that ushered him into the rare club of septuagenarians. "I am pleased. But it’s not intended to be that way- to be sitting in the front row and everyone’s singing your praises- unless you’re a Third World dictator.
It is, perhaps, Achebe’s acclaimed courage or his dislike for societal ills and apparent misrule that has got him into the latest trouble with the Federal Government. It all started last weekend when the novelist rejected the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) national honours conferred on him.
His letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo from his base in the United States read:
"I write this letter with a very heavy heart. For sometime now, I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting os 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.
"Forty three ago, at the first anniversary of Nigeria’s independence, I was given the first Nigerian National Trophy for Literature. In 1979, I received two further honours- the Nigerian National Order of Merit and the Order of the Federal Republic- and in 1999 the first National Creativity Award.
"I accepted all these honours fully aware that Nigeria was not perfect; but I had a strong belief that we could outgrow our shortcomings under leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples.
"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."
Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, President Obasanjo’s spokesperson, was as diplomatic as she was tactful in what was perceived to be government’s first reaction. According to the former president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, it was within "Prof. Achebe’s right to accept or reject the honour his country graciously bestowed on him."
Most Nigerians thought that the matter was going to be left at that until W
