CHINUA ACHEBE IS DEAD BUT HE LIVES ON

Just at the wee hours of the night, a lady wrote on his facebook page that Chinua Achebe, the Iroko of Africa is in the hospital, critically ill. Ordinarily, I would have got panicky or maybe dismayed but I rather gave a little smile. The smile was not of triumph but of happiness that he never lost himself even when he knew that he had little time left.

Two days after the inscription on the facebook page,  a friend wrote to me that the Iroko of igbo land has fallen and that ‘he will be remembered’. Right away, I countered him saying thus ‘for others, they will be remembered but for him (Achebe Chinua), he will never be forgotten’.  

He saw what others either refused to see or to talk about.

His systematically display; of the destruction caused by colonialism, of the gradual falling apart of every fabric of our corporate existence as a nation, of the over-ambitiousness caused by this loss of values and the leaders Machiavellian principle of leadership, proves beyond every reasonable doubt that things were falling apart in geometrical progression, whereas those who were told could neither listen nor act.

Insisting that the problem with Nigeria is that of ‘leadership and enthronement of mediocrity, he did not hide his disgust towards the crown of recognition offered him by the federal Government, who he believes (like every god willed Nigerian) is corrupt to the teeth.

What more can a man do to be ever in the memory of good people than telling a story of a country that once existed, with every passion and as he perceived it, even with the conviction that he will subject himself to a limitless criticism, especially, ethnically motivated?

As controversial as he may be seen, he is a great man whose conscience could not be compromised by any tactical dangling of fish on the trap even when it became obvious that he may not be hurt if he took a bite.

 He is a man of Great honor with capital G.  He left example for those who claim to fight corruption in the day light while embracing it under the covers of the dark night and to the majority of those who are in the corridors of power who are mere sycophants. He showed that a man can still make his marks in the society without singing the praises of a weak and insensitive government. 
 

Maybe his death may open up a good way for many to rise and fill the gap he created or maybe, the evil men in the land will find a way to discredit him and so wipe his name from history. 

Whatever happens, I am sure of one thing. Chinua Achebe will never be forgotten.