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For all those who love ethnicity.

How ethnicity, graft, others ruined Nigeria, by Achebe

LITERARY icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe yesterday lamented the nation’s woes, painting a picture of how the Nigeria-Biafra war which was precipitated by the bile of ethnic hatred, created a clique of military class and political adventurers that ruined the country.

He said this ugly development has been made easy by Nigerian academics who have presided over the liquidation of the university system in Nigeria and the rise of a culture of anti-intellectualism in the country.

Achebe made the remarks in a keynote address titled “Literature and Ethnicity” which he delivered at the Garden City Literary Festival taking place at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Rivers State. He was represented by his third son, Dr. Chidi.

The renowned professor of literature who spoke to the audience through a recorded video, recalled that though Nigeria is today steeped in ethnic and religious tensions, there was once a time when it was seen as a land of great hope, progress; a nation of immense resources including a great diversity of vibrant people who have not always been on the best of terms, but had collaborated to produce great results for the betterment of all. He said the Nigeria-Biafra war changed all that.

Present at the event were the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, American civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson, Vice Chancellor of UPORT, Prof. Joseph Ajienka, Prof. Molara Ogundipe, Prof. Femi Osofisan, Prof. Nkem Okoh, Prof. Chidi Maduka and other dignitaries.

Achebe said: “Since the war, Nigerians have been subjected to a clique of military and civilian adventurers and a political class that have exploited the ethnic divisions in Nigeria. This group, unfortunately, has been completely corrupted, spearheading the enormous transfer of the country’s wealth into private bank accounts, a wholesale theft of the national resources needed for all kinds of things - health, education, roads. The result has been that the nation’s infrastructure was left to disintegrate unleashing untold suffering on millions of innocent people.”

He noted that what upsets him most is that the entire mess, which Nigeria has found itself today was quite avoidable. According to him, the leadership appears not to really care for the welfare of the country and its people.

Achebe noted that for him, it was such a cataclysmic experience that has virtually changed the history of Africa and that of Nigeria such that he had to rethink all his optimism about the country.

He berated the academia for allegedly collaborating with the military and the civilian authorities to foster a culture of anti-intellectualism and misgoverning the country.

“If a political class, including intellectuals, university professors, and people like that, who have read all the books and know how the world works, had based their actions on principles rather than on opportunity, Nigeria would not have been in this predicament. But Nigerian leaders, beginning with the military dictators, looked around and saw that they could buy intellectuals,” Achebe said.

He said he despairs over Nigeria daily because of her missed opportunities and the fact that nobody has had the imagination to transcend all the ethnic pettiness and become a leader of modern Nigeria.

“So, let us stop all this nonsense about religion, about tribe and so on. Let us organise Nigeria and make it a working entity so that it can fulfil its mission in the world,” he said.

Achebe tasked Nigerian writers and their counterparts around the world to continue to point out the ills in the society even if it produces headaches in the halls of power.

Patron of the festival, Governor Amaechi, said the choice of literature and politics as the theme of this year’s edition of the festival was informed by the fact that politics permeates every aspect of life.

“From the role of women in our society to the struggles of those who feel their points of view are not clearly heard, to the development of our environment, literature probes every facets of our experience, including those bearings on political matters. This year’s festival offers a forum where writers, public figures, scholars and other citizens can discuss the nature and implications of the relationship between literature and politics. My hope is that at the end of this festival, we will come away with deeper insights and a renewed sense of the vital link between literature and politics.”

Amaechi also urged writers to reflect reality, noting that one of their major roles is to identify problems of the society and provide solutions to them.

Anyaoku who chaired the event, stressed that though education is the gateway to the development of any nation, such development would remain far from being achieved if it lacks a good literary culture.

He explained that if politics is to produce a non-dysfunctional world, politics needs literature because the two reinforce each other for good policy.

On his part, the American civil rights leader and former presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, Revd. Jesse Jackson stated that Nigeria’s stability and growth are huge things to the world, saying that, literacy, as the Garden City Literary Festival is promoting, is the key to liberation and that those who have the strong minds break strong chains.

He stated that literacy and poverty cannot co-exist, thus education is a key to competing into this world and “that thinking enables us to co-exist.”


Festival director, Koko Kalango observed that the GCLF has become a yearly forum for networking and conducting business with books, with intellectual ideas as common denominator