|
Achebe�s
patriotic intervention
It is highly
regrettable that the Federal Government would disappoint the expectation
of well-meaning Nigerians by spurning the edifying lessons and redemptive
benefits inherent in Professor Chinua Achebe�s timely and patriotic
intervention in the polity last week. Penultimate Thursday, the Minister
of Inter-governmental Affairs and Special Duties, Mr. Frank Nweke, had in
Abuja announced the names of the nominees for the 2004 National Honours
Award, and Achebe, who was to be conferred with the title of Commander of
the Federal Republic (CFR) shared the list with 190 other Nigerians
nominated for various awards.
But in a letter to the
President penultimate weekend, Achebe turned down the award. �Nigeria
under your watch,� he told President Obasanjo in the letter, �is, however,
too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest
by declining to accept the high honor awarded me in the 2004 Honors List.�
It is indeed reassuring that Achebe, Nigeria�s
foremost literary ambassador and Africa�s most widely read writer, has not
allowed distance to detach him from the crushing burden of a callous and
less-than transparent leadership under which his nation writhes and
groans. Evidently, he is saddened that a government that appears too eager
to overtly consort and hobnob with unrepentant agents of destabilisation
and unabridged lawlessness would seek to buy credibility by decorating him
with an honour whose worth and attraction have since been grossly depleted
by the unflattering reputation of the awarder. �I write this letter with a
very heart,� Achebe told the President. �For some time 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 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.�
It is scandalous that the
Obasanjo Government would want to pretend that Achebe�s remarks were born
out of insufficient acquaintance with developments at home, as if the
issues Achebe raised in his letter are not ones over which the Nigerian
people have cried themselves hoarse. Indeed, this Government has not even
tried to disguise its insensitivity towards the feelings of Nigerians, and
they had hoped that the timely and sagely intervention of the �Big
Masquerade� last week would awaken the authorities to the reality of its
unqualified alienation from their plight. The Government should be
concerned that, even from far away New York, Achebe is able to capture the
dominant feeling among the populace than they are able to do from their
well-provided fortresses at Aso Rock.
Achebe�s rejection of the
award is therefore not a �slap on the Nigerian people� as the government
has wrongly submitted. It is not even a slap on the government or any
person for that matter. It is instead a well considered patriotic input
from an elder statesman and worthy ambassador whose moral properties have
remained unimpugned, and whose words should compel any well-meaning and
sincere government to rethink its policy and political choices in order to
once more identify with the feelings and aspirations of the people who
bear the crushing weight of every directionless leadership.
Unfortunately, President
Obasanjo, by unleashing on the polity an aide whose sanity has remained
subject of serious speculations to rain abuses at Achebe has squandered
another excellent opportunity to benefit from a true assessment his
administration. The government has therefore further diminished itself in
the eyes of the world. Its infantile insinuations about quest for foreign
awards betray its unqualified ignorance of what Achebe stands for in the
African and world literary landscape. By seeking to insult Achebe whose
unimpeachable reputation it had sought to appropriate by awarding him an
honour whose attraction and worth it has over the years ruined by dishing
it out to even known enemies of the state, the Obasanjo government is only
confirming the growing suspicion that it has become incorrigible, and,
therefore, has no intention of retracing its anti-people stance.
It should be clear that
Achebe�s problem is not with Nigeria or its people, and he is quite aware
that the interest of the Nigerian people has since become different from
that of the leadership. �Forty years ago,� he reminded the President in
his letter, �at the first anniversary of Nigeria�s independence, I was
given the first Nigerian National Trophy for Literature. In 1979, I
received�the Nigerian National Order of Merit and the Order of the Federal
Republic- and in 1999 the first National Creativity Award. I accepted
these honours fully aware that �we would outgrow our shortcomings under
leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples.�
We salute Achebe�s courage to
speak up at a time many of those looked upon have been compromised into
silence by a Government that is clearly overwhelmed by the high demands of
leadership. We hope it would shed its arrogance and let Achebe�s
intervention persuade it into positive steps and actions. Achebe has
distinguished himself both as a literary giant and a moral force whose
words draw the ear of the world. His image has continued to market Nigeria
across the globe. His classic novel, Things Fall Apart, has since sold over fifteen
million copies and is read in over sixty languages of the world. Indeed,
Achebe and his works have become national assets and great selling points
for Nigeria. His counsel to the rulers of his severely distressed nation
should attract the unqualified attention of its leaders and not gratuitous
insults.
| 
