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Abuja courts Achebe, other critics
By Chinedu Offor
Correspondent, Washington D.C.
Aso Rock has
stepped up efforts to court literary icon Chinua Achebe and other influential
Nigerians in the Diaspora critical of the administration of President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Sources said the
coordinator of the latest effort is Ambassador George Obiozor, following the
apparent failure of the image laundering project launched last year.
The government is
reportedly surprised at the widespread support of Achebe's rejection of the
national award offered him, especially in the Diaspora, and is worried that
other recipients may turn down the honour to protest government policies.
The move is a
departure to the grandstanding in Abuja shortly after the literary guru
announced his rejection of the second highest national honour.
The
President’s special assistant ion public affairs Femi Fani-Kayode had, in
his characteristic manner, dismissed Achebe’s action as a non issue,
claiming that since Achebe has spurned the honour done him by the country, he
was not deserving of its citizenship. Abuja may have had a rethink following
the backlash that trailed the action. Sources said Obiozor has been mandated to
meet with the respected author and other influential Nigerians in various
cities in the United States.
An official of
the Nigerian Consulate in New York said the government is particularly
concerned about Achebe's charges that the Presidency may be fueling the crisis
in Anambra State and that it has not made any noticeable improvement in the
lives of the people since Obasanajo came to power.
Achebe wrote: I
write this letter with a very heavy heart. 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’
The consulate
official said "when level-headed apolitical influential people like Achebe
speak, the international community takes note. His comments came at a time the
people of the Niger Delta are also complaining of marginalisation, so it
challenges the government’s constant comment that things are getting
better".
It was learnt
that Obiozor has started meeting Nigerian groups across the country, the latest
of which was in Houston, Texas. And he has reportedly contacted Achebe on
government plans to “get his advice”, on better ways to improve the
lives of Nigerians.
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