It’s not the kind of news you
want to hear about a man whose
global exploits as a Nigerian are
matched only perhaps by music
legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, but
there are reports that, three days
to the five-fay burial writes of
author and teacher, Chinua
Achebe, his family is locked in
controversy as to whether to
hand over the programme for
his burial to government –
federal and Anambra state in
particular.
The burial is scheduled for
Thursday, 23 May in Ogidi,
Anambra.
According to Premium Times,
they have in the last one week,
“received several telephone calls
from some of Mr. Achebe’s
family members,
contemporaries, associates,
friends and fans accusing the
late writer’s wife, Christy and her
children, of surrendering Mr.
Achebe’s corpse to the
government for pecuniary gains.
The family wouldn’t comment on
the allegations.”
While alive, Mr. Achebe, who
died on March 22 at 82, was
a consistent and vociferous
critic of the Nigerian federal
and state governments who
he repeatedly accused of
monumental corruption,
ineptitude and
misgovernment. In protest
against the way Nigeria is
run, the revered novelist, in
2004 and 2011, rejected
national honours awarded
him by the federal
government.
But the federal and state
governments that Mr.
Achebe criticized and kept
at bay while alive have now
been handed leading roles
in the burial of the globally
acclaimed novelist, a
development that has irked
not a few family members,
contemporaries, fans and
associates.
“Prof was a simple man
who deliberately rejected
affiliation with the Nigerian
government,” lamented an
Achebe family member who
pleaded not to be named
for fear of being ostracized
by the late writer’s family.
“It is now shocking and
nauseating that his wife
and children have now sold
his corpse to the same
destructive forces he
opposed till death.”
She added, “We are trying
to understand why they are
trying to destroy his legacy
when the man actually left
more than enough wealth
to be given a befitting
burial without any
government getting
involved. Why don’t they
want to spend the man’s
money to give him a
befitting burial?”
Checks by this newspaper
revealed that the federal
and Anambra state
government are handling
almost all aspects of the
burial. The federal
government has constituted
a Chinua Achebe Transition
Committee, led by Professor
T. Uzodinma Nwala, to
handle logistics for the
burial. The Minister of
Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, has also been
detailed to arrange
accommodation,
transportation and security
for all guests expected at
the burial. In fact, a
document seen by one of
our sources listed Mr.
Achebe’s wife and children
among guests being
expected at the burial,
suggesting that they were
being invited to their own
patriarch’s interment.
A programme drawn up by
the Professor Nwala’s
committee showed that Mr.
Achebe’s remains would, on
May 21, be received at the
airport in Abuja by Nigerian
politicians and political
office holders, some of
whom the writer
considered corrupt and
inept while alive. The
novelist will also be treated
to a reception at the
National Assembly,
populated mainly by
elements Mr. Achebe
believed were holding
Nigeria down.
“We can’t understand why
Achebe’s wife and kid are
taking steps that are
contrary to what the good
man stood for,” a
contemporary of the late
writer said via telephone
from the United States.
“They are doing the
opposite of what their
father would do.” He
requested not to be named
for fear he might be
accused of trying to derail
his friend’s burial.
Olu Oguibe, a Professor of
Art and African-American
Studies at the University of
Connecticut, Storrs, and
family friend of the
Achebes, has been
especially vociferous in his
criticism of the late writer’s
family. “To the best of the
knowledge of many who
were close to him, his views
and opinion of the Nigerian
government and that of his
state which he so clearly
protested in 2004 and 2011
had not changed,” Mr.
Oguibe said in an April 29
post on his Facebook page
that stirred extensive
discussion. “ So, what does
it mean that in death, the
very same government that
this great philosopher and
patriot so strongly and
unequivocally disapproved
of has been given free rein
to organize his last rites.”
“The government that he
rejected and protested in
life is now the chief host at
his funeral. That has
nothing to do with him, of
course; he’s moved on and
he made it absolutely clear
what he believed in and
where he stood. Yet, what
does it mean for those
who’ve turned his farewell
over to brigands and
thieves?”
Many other angry fans of
the late writer soon joined
in the debate. “In every
sphere of existence,
Nigerians are found
wanting,” lamented Zainab
Haliru, an Abuja-based
writer. “It is as though we
are meant to be case
studies of the exception of
rules. We bastardise
everything. A man like
Achebe just did not fit into
our dishonest and
disrespectful ways. I would
have thought that his
immediate family would
have turned down the
offers. I remember Gani
Fawehinmi’s family did.”
Yet another commentator,
Ralph Tathagata, said,
“Without any resort to
insult, children of great
minds are not known for
making remarkable
decisions at moments like
this.”
Mr. Tathagata then added,
“When the most popular
modern existentialist
philosopher, Jean-Paul
Sartre died in April, 1980,
President Giscard d’Estaing
came in person to the
hospital and spent an hour
beside his coffin. He
understood that Sartre, a
man who had always
rejected official honours
(including the Nobel Prize
for Literature), would not
want a national burial.
However, he told Sartre’s
friends(including Simone de
Beauvoir), ‘but the
government would like to
pay the cost of his funeral.
The Sartreans thanked him,
but refused. The Achebeans
must not let these base
elements in the corridors
power stand astride
Achebe’s grave.”
The family sources insist that
this is not the first time his wife
and children will so “betray” him
– pointing to 1990 when they
accepted a 75,000 pounds gift
from the head of state at the
time, military dictator Ibrahim
Babangida.
Mr. Achebe, the source said,
was still in coma when the
emissary arrived with the
money. One of the late
writer’s son, Ike, who
reportedly warned the
family against accepting the
gift, was shouted down by
other family members who
were quoted as saying
“Achebe should be allowed
to chop Nigeria’s money for
once”.
“Some of us are ashamed
that Prof’s family members
are the ones betraying him,
offering his corpse to
government in return for
favours,” the family source
said.
And then there’s the matter of
the award he rejected, twice:
A presidency source said
the government has also
offered to award a
posthumous national
honour to Mr. Achebe but it
is not clear whether his
family has acceded to the
proposal.
When the government
offered Mr. Achebe a
national honour of
Commander of the Federal
Republic, CFR, in 2004, he
wrote to the administration
rejecting it. “Nigeria’s
condition today is,
however, too dangerous
for silence. I must register
my disappointment and
protest by declining to
accept the high honour
awarded me in the 2004
Honours List,” he wrote.
He added, “I write this letter
with a very heavy heart.
For some time now I have
watched events in Nigeria
with alarm and dismay. I
have watched particularly
the chaos in my own state
of Anambra where a small
clique of renegades, openly
boasting its connections in
high places, seems
determined to turn my
homeland into a bankrupt
and lawless fiefdom. I am
appalled by the brazenness
of this clique and the
silence, if not connivance,
of the Presidency.”
When the award was again
offered him in 2011, he
again turned it down,
saying “The reasons for
rejecting the offer when it
was first made have not
been addressed let alone
solved.”
Handing the Achebe
Colloquium to government
Sources close to the family
also told PREMIUM TIMES
that the Federal
Government has also
offered to henceforth fund
the Achebe Colloquium, a
festival of ideas convened
annually since 2009 by the
late writer to bring
“together an international
group of scholars, officials
from African governments,
the United Nations, the
United States, the European
Union, and other
organizations for two days
of intense deliberation and
exchange of ideas on the
importance of
strengthening democracy
and peace on the African
continent”.
Critics say asking the
Nigerian government to
fund a gathering through
which experts examine
what is wrong with African
countries and proffer
solutions amounted “to
asking the same
governments considered
rotten by Achebe to take
charge.” “This is a huge
betrayal of Achebe’s
legacy,” an associate of the
late novelist said.
In all of this, the immediate
family is keeping mum. The son,
told the press that interviews will
not be granted until after the
burial. However, another family
source – who begged anonymity
– remarked that it is impossible
to stop the goverment from
participating in the burial
because Achebe is an “ozu
Nigeria” (a corpse belonging to
Nigeria).
“The family can’t stand in the
way of government because
Prof was a national figure,” he
said. “He transcended local
politics and anyone who wants
to be helpful during his burial
should be free to do so.”

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