Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, The Chairman of the Achebe National Transition Committee, has asked the federal government to name the National library after the departed novelist Prof. Achebe.
According to the former president of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and member of the Achebe National transition committee, Dr. Wale Okediran, Achebe’s body will now arrive from the United States Tuesday at 8 am and will be received at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport by government officials, writers, cultural organisations and other associates.
At 10 am today in Abuja, ANA will hold a lecture at the International Conference Centre (ICC) for Achebe under the chairmanship of Niger State governor Dr. Babangida Aliyu, while a day of tributes also holds today at the same venue at 3. 30 pm. The body will then depart for Enugu on Tuesday and will be in Awka on Wednesday. He will be buried on Thursday in Ogidi, Anambra State.
Okonjo Iweala in her comment said Achebe was an important African figure and that the Federal government was working with the Achebe family, the NTC and the south east governors to give the late writer a befitting funeral, adding that President Goodluck Jonathan, who would be attending the funeral, personally received Achebe’s son, Ike, in Abuja recently.
Maku, sharing Okonjo Iweala’s comments, described Achebe in superlative terms, saying the writer ranked alongside William Shakespeare, Homer, among others and that he wrote from Afrocentrist perspective.
This, Maku argued, perhaps denied Achebe the Nobel prize. He added that “the prize is not the most important thing. The most important thing is to write. Achebe put Africa in the book shelves and restored the dignity of the African which had been abused”.
Former vice chairman of the Nigerian communication commission, Ernest Ndukwe, said Achebe was a great patriot young Nigerians should emulate.
In his commendation service, the Anglican primate, Most Rev Okoh, said Achebe was God’s gift to Africa, Nigeria and the Igbo. Thanking God for Achebe’s life, Okoh said “Achebe is great because he spread his God’s gift to the world, thus exposing the cultural conflict in Igboland in early colonial period in Nigeria”.
Okoh said that Nigerians should emulate Achebe’s life of giving, in this time that Nigerians go to India for health issues. He tasked the federal government to build a well equipped hospital in the land to reduce the number of people rushing abroad for good treatment noting that one of the reasons Achebe gave for not returning home was lack of good medicare in Nigeria.
Okoh noted the principled nature of Achebe which he said made him a role model for the youth and castigated those who choose wealth over moral principles, saying that wealth is transient and limited. Okoh submitted that if the youth imbibe Achebe’s principles, there will be a moral revolution in Nigeria.
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