A TRIBUTE TO CHINUA ACHEBE (Nov. 1930-March 2013)
2021 Edition

By Olohy Ejembi

Since my last tribute to you, Achebe, things are getting ineffably worse everyday in the country you left. The rots in the country are engendered by what you identified in 1983 with Nigerian leadership - the country is impeccably unfortunate in its leadership. You said that the problem with Nigerian leadership “is the seminal absence of intellectual rigour in the political thought of our founding fathers”. Nigerian leaders today, in addition to total lack of intellectual rigour in leadership, completely lack empathy in their feelings towards the country and its citizenry. Inclination “to pious materialistic wooliness and self-centered pedestrianism” is piquant to their nature.

Achebe, a lot has happened since you left us in this bramble forest called Nigeria. You wrote sometime ago about the poor choice of using Unity and Faith as the central message of the Nigerian Coat-of-arm. As you feared, our leaders have 'United' in one 'Faith' and have sold the poor masses and taken their inheritances. And it's never a new story to keep reminding you about the unequivocal level of social injustice in the country.

You said that Nigerians are not “particularly evil or wicked”. However, it's arguably not true that Nigerians are not “particularly evil or wicked”. Now our forests are no longer used for hunting of wild animals or for game reserve. They're now used as human zoos by kidnappers. The leaders in Nigeria sent barbarians into our forests to terrorize the poor and kidnap them; they have made farmers handicap so much that they live like castaways in their own communities. Kidnapping is now the most payable job in the country.

You wrote that there was country. Achebe, Nigeria now is a country that was in the past. Although Nigeria has never been a country in a real sense of it, but there used to be a geography called Nigeria. Since you left, Achebe, that geography no longer exists. The Nigeria you used to know is now an illusive entity which includes any part of the world that a Fulani exists. And it now excludes any part of the former Nigeria that doesn't have a strong and unique affinity to the Fulani race.

Achebe, you wrote that “The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to responsibility”. Of course Nigerian leaders are not responsible leaders. However, it seems it's not because they are not only willing to, but because they do not have the ability to be responsible. Somewhat, Nigerian leaders seem to lack progressive spirit which is the hallmark of development. Irresponsibility is a natural disposition akin to Nigerians - here indiscipline and corruption are accepted as a virtue of smartness.

Achebe, as you saw before you left, Nigeria keeps decaying everyday. And it seems the problems are destined to compound everyday. Recall that you wrote that Nigerians are not famous with “mental rigour”. It's so very true. There are no people in Nigeria to confront the problems. Leaders of Civil Society Organizations that are supposed to confront the problems keep acting like hungry dogs, instead of being people whose actions are engendered by anger over social failures and injustices. Civil Society Organizations' leaders in Nigeria only rise up and bark whenever they are hungry for their own share of the national cake. Once a crumb is thrown to them, they share it among themselves and go back to their kennel until they become hungry again.

Achebe, the hero of Patriots, we want you to come back and tell Nigerians with the words of David Cameron that they are fantastically corrupt; come back and tell Nigerians with the words of Lord Alfred Denise that among them bribery and graft are accepted and stealing is a virtue. Code of morals is abandoned in public places. Morals are only remembered and accepted when in the church or mosque, but rejected elsewhere. Come and tell them how they place priority on self and other primordial sentiments against laws, institutions and the state. in Nigeria patriotism is seen as mystical phenomenon that is impracticable.

We need you to come and remind Nigerians that they dearly promote tribalism, false image of themselves, lack patriotism, lack discipline, lack social justice, and have a leadership style that naturally promote corruption and mediocrity. Hence we have a system that is a direct opposite of the style of leaderships that promote development.

OH, ACHEBE, WE MISS YOU!