Originally posted in 2004
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
October 15, 2004: The author of the epic, literary masterpiece, ‘Things Fall Apart’ (written in 1958), social conscience of millions, cultural custodian and elevator, chronicler and essayist, goodwill ambassador and man of progressive rock-ribbed principles,
The most translated writer of Black heritage in the world, the Eagle on the Iroko, Professor Chinua Achebe, has taken the extraordinary step of “declining to accept the high honor awarded me in the 2004 Honors List” by Nigeria’s president, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo.
In the October 2004 letter sent to the presidency, the eminent writer and statesman Achebe informed Obasanjo that “Nigeria’s condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest….”
According to the letter obtained by USAfricaonline.com, USAfrica The Newspaper and CLASS magazine (the first media networks to obtain and publish its content), Achebe pointed to the issues of Nigeria’s leaders failing to unite the country’s diverse peoples and the what he identified as “the silence, if not connivance, of the Presidency” in thedestabilization of parts of Nigeria and state governments bypolitical and business renegades.
Achebe, the author of ‘No Longer at Ease’ (1960), ‘Arrow of God’ (1964—rev 1974), and ‘Anthills of the Savannah’ (1987), wrote to Obasanjo, “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.”
Achebe noted in his usual clarity and depth of meaning that he wrote “this letter with a very heavy heart.”President Obasanjo was born on March 5, 1937, while Prof. Achebe was born on November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, Nigeria
In rejecting the award from the presidency of Obasanjo, Achebe’s symbolic point will further draw theline between the toadying apologists of Obasanjo, who insist that thepresident who is on his 2nd time as Nigeria’s head of state (3 years as a military dictator from 1976-1979), and a 2nd term as leader since 1999), is “doing his best to improve Nigeria and stature internationally,” and the leader’s ardent critics who cite thecost of living, decaying infrastructure, and killings in parts of the country as the results of “a mediocre, inept, know-it-all, and corrupt Obasanjo government.”
Achebe’s decision to reject the 2004 national honors from Obasanjo is not accidental; it’s rooted in his position that the writer ought to see himself/herself as a part of the wider goal of building a better society. For him, there’s an organic relationship between writing as education and the building of a better society. Recall that the distinguished and prolific Achebe wrote in 1975 in his work ‘Morning Yet on Creation Day’ that “The writer cannot be excused from the task of re-education and regeneration that must be done…”
Achebe has never shied away from speaking truths to the face of power, especially writing with such lucidity and accessibility that his essays and books have since become equalizers for the scholarly and the average reader. (See selected works of Achebe at the bottom of this page).
Achebe’s latest note and poignant reminder to the “powers that be” in Nigeria follows in his decades-old commitment to call the leadership to do better for a long-suffering people -especially in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. I recall flying back to the U.S. (from South Africa directly to New York) to attend Prof. Achebe’s 70th birthday at the historic Bard College (November 3-4,2000) and its related conference titled “Home and Exile: Achebe at 70” – where Achebe made a similar point. In the midst of his friends and some of the best writers in the world, he mentioned how everyone was speaking so nicely of him in honor of his birthday; then he joked that, were he a military dictator may be those two days of November would have been declared national holidays. He burst into laughter…. That’s vintage Achebean sarcasm.
In 1983, he wrote the often-quoted pamphlet, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria. In the latter, he cited the litany of failures of the leaders and pointed the way forward. In rejecting Obasanjo’s award, he’s making a statement about the direction and quality of leadership in Nigeria today. The sage has picked the moment to set his revered and valuable company and name apart from a list that does not separate dealers from leaders. With Chinua Achebe, Eagle on the Iroko, you may never mistake his message.
Chido Nwangwu, recipient of the Journalism Excellence award (1997), is the founder and Publisher of USAfricaonline.com (first African-owned U.S.-based professional newspaper to be published on the internet), USAfrica The Newspaper, CLASS magazine, and The Black Business Journal. He served as an adviser to the Mayor of Houston on international business (Africa) and appears as an analyst on CNN Inside Africa, CNN International, VOA, NPR, CBSNews, NBC, and ABC news affiliates.
