Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
By Chido Nwangwu. Follow on X (Twitter) @Chido247
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As the issues of relative insecurity, terrorism and a few ethnic agitations continue into 2025, USAfrica’s Founder CHIDO NWANGWU delivers an insightful flashback to the exchange of views on governance in a multi-ethnic society.
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On a chilly Friday of December 7, 2012, Babatunde Raji Fashola, then Governor of Lagos State of Nigeria, came into Rhode Island as a special guest and plenary session speaker at the Achebe colloquium on Africa.
At almost 4:46pm, he commenced his prepared speech with off-the-cuff remarks on a wide range of issues.
For meaningful context, let me note that the Achebe Colloquium on Africa, Democracy, Peace and Security is an international gathering of policymakers, policy executors, officials from African governments, the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, elected leaders, development interests executives, multidisciplinary scholars, business leaders, civic leaders, students and artistes convened by the foremost writer of African descent, globally-acclaimed novelist, essayist and icon Prof. Chinua Achebe and the Achebe Foundation.
After a string of brilliant philosophical arguments regarding Africa’s renaissance to chronicling several remarkable achievements of his governorship, he cautiously stepped into thorny grounds…..
Towards the end of his impressive 38 minutes message, he carefully navigated the heated debates, the minefields of strong support and personal attacks which have followed Prof. Chinua Achebe’s 2012 work of history, nationalism, poetry, education and creative exposition titled ‘There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra.’
As the moderator of the
Achebe colloquium 2012, I introduced Gov. Fashola of Lagos State to the diverse audience and participants.
Fashola, at the podium almost 15 feet away from Achebe, told the galaxy of African, American, European and Asian scholars, researchers, students, activists and business executives that the heat generated by the book almost made him look for a reason to avoid the event rescheduled for him from the 2011 colloquium.
He said, according to the USAfricaonline.com reports from the colloquium that after reading just about half of the book “I wanted to write Prof. Achebe to give him reasons why I cannot attend today’s occasion….”
He said he was under pressure from his immediate Yoruba constituency.
He immediately ordered the new book to be mailed to an address in England, he would be traveling to– at the time. The man said he needed to read the book to know and understand why there was so much passion against and for the book; especially against the book by people of his ethnic Yoruba, majority of his supporters. “I’m Yoruba. Prof. Chinua Achebe is an Igbo. I’m a student of ‘Things Fall Apart’; things were No longer at Ease, but the center still held…”, he added, to applause from the audience, his play on words about some of Achebe’s novels.
He served as the Chief of Staff during the governorship of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Tinubu became the President of Nigeria from from the 2023 elections.
Fashola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, whom I had introduced and described a few minutes before his speech as “the governor who has shown himself as a worthy example of good governance in Nigeria” appealed to the dueling groups over Achebe’s book on Biafra to calm things and hopefully “move forward.”
Consequently, during the Q&A session, he was asked by Prof. Obi Nwakanma (a contributor to USAfricaonline.com and faculty staff of University of Central Florida): “When will the wounds of the war heal?”
In a frank, brief answer, Fashola said the wounds may heal but the scars will be there; adding that, in his view, the new generation of Nigerians want to move beyond the issue.
In a remarkable context for him and the audience, Fashola pointed out, according to my notes at the colloquium: “I was only 4 years old” when the 1967-1970 Nigeria-Biafra war started.
But there were more follow-up questions, including the ones which raised the issue of the brutal devastations and genocidal killings held against Nigerian soldiers and wartime leaders (especially the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as reiterated by Achebe in his new book, extensively quoting Awolowo’s own words).
Fashola blamed the national information management system in Nigeria and its failure to document and release official information about events like the war for the heated disagreements…..
•Dr. Chido Nwangwu, author of the forthcoming book, MLK, Mandela & Achebe: Power, Leadership and Identity., is the Founder of the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper on the internet, USAfricaonline.com, and established USAfrica in 1992 in Houston. He has appeared as an analyst on CNN, ALJazeera, SKYnews, and served as an adviser on Africa business to Houston’s former Mayor Lee Brown. Follow on X (Twitter) @Chido247
