Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, has stated that the state was ready to give the late literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe a befitting state burial.
The Governor who made the statement on Sunday while inspecting St. Philip’s Anglican Church, Ogidi, where the funeral will take place on Thursday, said government will continue to honour people who contributed positively to the advancement of the society.
The Governor also inspected Achebe’s final resting place, which is also designed to serve as a mini museum to house all the deceased works.
On her part, Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, noted that the gap Achebe left in the literary world would be difficult to fill.
Speaking on Sunday at the Commendation Service held at the National Christian Centre, Abuja, she said, “We are very proud to have him as a Nigerian. He has brought a lot of fame and dignity to this country. I am sure that his colleagues will agree that his departure has created a vacuum.
“He has encouraged many Nigerian writers and we hope that they will also come up to feel that gap. I don’t think anyone can easily enter his shoes,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is a member of the Chinua Achebe National Transition Burial Committee, added that “I can personally assure you all as Minister of Finance that the Federal Government is very much involved. I think communication needs to be improved,” she said.
Minister of Information and Communication, Labaran Maku, who also spoke accused the international community of denying the late giant a Nobel prize.
“Achebe, in my opinion is one of the most important Nigerians in the last hundred years. And he is likely to live longer than any Nigerian living and dead. Through his literature, he has placed Africa on the map indelibly.
“He will be relevant to human civilisation for thousands of years to come. We see his death as only transitory in the physical form, but the idea, the emotion, the philosophy and the life he lived after his death will be far more important than we know him while he was alive.
“You can compare him with other immortal writers like Shakespeare, John Milton and others. Achebe has done so much for this continent. He broke the ground by placing the African novels on the shelf.
“Following his fame in writing, he has inspired others like Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Camara Laye and several other writers who came to copy his form of writing. He was Afro-centric. He wrote to enhance the culture of Africa.
“He was not just a novelist but a defender of dignity of Africa. Achebe was a true pan-Africanist in human history.
“It is an embarrassment to the international community that he never got a Nobel prize. Many people said he didn’t get it because his literature was Afro-centric.
“His literature promotes the dignity of Africa and our right to live independently and to reason independently from other parts of the world.
“He didn’t get the Nobel prize probably because he was found to be too independent. Achebe’s books like Things Fall Apart, Anthills of Savannah, A Man of the People, among others will be remembered almost forever. His literary criticism is more important than what you find in his novels,” the Minister said.
Archbishop and Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh, described the late Achebe as God’s gift to the African continent, Nigeria and Igboland in particular.
“The late Professor Chinua Achebe used his intellect, which was given to him by God, to impact his generation, and will continue to impact many generations to come, and as a result, we should also use our God-given talents in our areas of calling to impact lives around us,’’ Okoh said, while calling on Nigerians to be patriotic as the late Achebe was.
Earlier, Chairman, Chinua Achebe National Transition Burial Committee, Professor Uzodinma Nwala, praise Achebe, saying he “was never an anarchist; he was someone who loved his people and the country so much, and there was no way he would have accepted the national honours at the time they were offered to him based on what was happening in Anambra and in Nigeria at that time.”
Comments