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Honour for Achebe

Vanguard
20 June 2007

Chinua Achebe, distinguished Nigerian, academic of high standing and foremost writer of international repute, has been projecting positively the image of the country. Since an accident confined him to a wheel chair, forcing his relocation to the United States, Achebe has been in the news for worthy reasons.

Newly added to his roll of honours is the prestigious Man Booker International Prize. His book, Things Fall Apart, written in his twenties in 1958 won for him and the nation this literary honour. For achieving this feat, he is richer by £60,000, price money for winner of the award. The first winner of the award instituted in 2005 was Ismail Kadare, an Albanian. The race to emerging 2007 winner by Achebe was testy. Renowned authors/writers like Peter Carey, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and John Banville were considered. But our own Chinua Achebe was finally picked as winner of the prized award.

Professor Elaine Showalter, one of the judges that decided the winner, described Achebe's Things Fall Apart as the First "modern African novel." The novel has sold more than 10 million copies while it has been translated into 50 languages worldwide except the author's native Igbo.

Achebe even though on a wheel chair has been known for noble things. He is not among those who go out of their way to crave for honours. As a principled writer, he chooses the ones to accept among the numerous that come his way. He is sensitive to the plight of his country men which informed his decision to turn down the national honours of CFR conferred on him by immediate past President Olusegun Obasanjo administration. He cited poor living conditions of Nigerians and abuse of rule of law as reasons for rejecting the national honours. In recent time, Achebe's voice remains one of the most credible in the crusade against bad governance. From his abode in the United States, he wrote letters to the last administration admonishing it of the consequence of bad policies and pursuit of inordinate ambition. He was always espousing virtues of democracy and the need for government to always adhere to them.

Achebe lives abroad but remains a model to several millions of his countrymen living within and outside his fatherland. His enviable literary credentials deserve the attention of Nobel Prize Committee. This Nigerian literary icon of international standing deserves the consideration of world's most prized literary award committee as a result of his invaluable contributions to global literary industry. We congratulate Achebe who has remained the nation's positive image ambassador for this new international honour that he earned on merit.

Copyright © 2007 Vanguard

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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm