Chinua Achebe’s sterling example
on SEPTEMBER 26, 2011 · in EDITORIAL

From far away United States of America, one of Nigeria’s literary giants and ambassadors of honour, Professor Chinualumogu Achebe, has set another good example.

What he has done sends strong signals to fellow Nigerians, especially the youth that there are things money cannot buy.

It all started when popular rapper, James Jackson Curtis III, also known as “50 Cent”, offered to pay $1 million to keep the title: “Things Fall Apart,” which he gave to a film he has been shooting for the past one year.

Unknown to him, there was a famous African novel written 17 years in Africa before he was born bearing the same title.

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, is the most widely read work of literature emanating from Africa and has sold more than 10 million copies. The 53- year-old novel was listed in 2009 as number 14 in Newsweek Magazine’s top 100 books. Though written in the English language, it has been translated into 50 other world languages.

In spite of this enviable pedigree, the rapper and his handlers apparently did not know of its existence when they chose the title for their documentary, which was based on the story of an American footballer diagnosed with cancer.

The film was directed by Mario Van Peebles and was premiered at the Miami Film Festival in March this year. And so, when Achebe’s legal team notified “50 Cent” of this apparent copyrights infringement, the latter offered the said amount to enable him keep the title. Achebe turned down the offer, describing it as an “insult” and saying the title was not for sale, not even for a billion dollars. “50 Cent” decided to rename his project All “Things Fall Apart.”

This story holds a lot of lesson for everybody, especially here in Nigeria. This is a country where the quest for money has blinded most people to the more sublime virtues. Not many Nigerians still live under the age-old dictum: “Good name is better than silver and gold.” Things are literally falling apart in Nigeria because of the mad quest for money. Both in the public and private sectors, most people are not paying attention to the job they signed for.

They are more interested in the money that comes with the job, especially the money they can make illegally on the job. Many policemen are more interested in the money they extort from motorists than in their primary task of securing the country. Security agents at the borders collect money and allow foreigners and Nigerians alike, many of who have nothing good to offer for being in Nigeria to come in and create problems in the system. The list is endless.

The quest for money is responsible for the collapse of values in all sectors of society and the economy. That an eminent Nigerian like Chinua Achebe can look $1 million in the face and tell it off is therefore worth cheering and emulating. He could easily have taken the money without losing much face since it could have been justified as a benefit from the work of his hands.

Achebe has been a crusader for moral regeneration in Nigeria. His small dynamite of a book entitled: The Trouble With Nigeria, is a book of lamentations on how things fell apart in a country that was billed for greatness at independence. It was written 27 years ago. In it, among other things, Achebe had condemned the inordinate quest for money in Nigeria, which was then in its infancy compared to the epidemic scale of it today. In rejecting the “50 Cent” offer he effectively put his preachments into practice.

Nigeria needs a total moral rebirth. As a nation, we have strayed and our youths are growing up the wrong way. We should find the right avenue to bring back the teachings of our cultures and religions, which place emphasis on achievement rather than money. Our cultures and religions teach us that we should never sell our consciences and that integrity is a convertible currency.

Achebe, who has long been one of the icons of this nation, nay Africa and the Black Race, has reinforced his place in the pantheon of African leaders of great character.

We salute his good example and recommend it to all.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/09/chinua-achebes-sterling-example/

Chinua Achebe is a world legend, most important Nigerian literary giant