Just like yesterday when Professor Chinua Achebe unveiled
the mask from his long-awaited controversial book ’’there was a country’’. A
book that recounts the history of Biafra war- a civil warfare fought in Nigeria
during the reign of the formal general head of state, Yakubu Gowon within 1967
to 1970. The book, after its release in year 2012 has been generating different
stony and extolling controversies in defence or against of individual party concerned
in the searing war that claimed the lives of more than thousand; and among many
prominent Nigerians who witnessed the heart-piercing national crevice, without overlooking
those who heard the lay from the eyewitnesses.
Being a common man who is keenly concerned about the different awful tongue wagging, draconian annotations and supportive acclamation that the book has engendered within the nation and the globe entirely, I think having a voice will illuminate the matter more. Achebe is a literary icon whose name has been ringing bell into the auricles of this generation. Things fall apart, his highly rated best- selling novel has been a text of all Ages. Being a typical African Igbo man who witnessed the horrendous ethnic antagonism, ‘semi-genocide’ and tribal rivalry between the late Odumegwu Ojukwu led force and the nation military forces, he believes that the side which he belongs -the eventual losers of the war was not at fault and thereby pointed accused finger at late chief Obafemi Awolowo , the then financial minister and Yoruba elder statesman and other well known Hausa-Yoruba politicians; that they were the ones who blew pepper of war into the eye of Igbos and made them battle internal dearth, poverty-stricken wants out of their flaming hatred for the Igbo indigenes, which later resulted into inevitable genocide of the innocent Igbo women, children and the Biafran militia. Though many of the Awolowo’s contemporaries have spoken on his behalf, (a rejoinder that seems a sent back response of chief Awolowo to professor Achebe from the grave), claiming that all what Achebe recounts in his book concerning him are blatant lies distanced from truth; that Awo who Achebe portrayed as someone beating the drum of ‘tear-apart’ was not the one denied the Igbos of their grant from the federal government and stopped importation of food to the Eastern part; and that Igbo were their greatest enemies who summoned war for themselves.
In an open-door interview with one of the Awoites, the interviewee established the fact that after the war, late chief Jeremiah Awolowo wrote a reintegrating letters to Achebe who was in abroad by then and some prominent Igbo elder statesmen who had flown out of the country at the onset or before the commencement of the war that they should come back to their fatherland for the war had ended and the nation was again in harmony and amity. He also made it clear that all the Igbos shares of the national cake denied them during the war were later sent back to them.
Being a common man who is keenly concerned about the different awful tongue wagging, draconian annotations and supportive acclamation that the book has engendered within the nation and the globe entirely, I think having a voice will illuminate the matter more. Achebe is a literary icon whose name has been ringing bell into the auricles of this generation. Things fall apart, his highly rated best- selling novel has been a text of all Ages. Being a typical African Igbo man who witnessed the horrendous ethnic antagonism, ‘semi-genocide’ and tribal rivalry between the late Odumegwu Ojukwu led force and the nation military forces, he believes that the side which he belongs -the eventual losers of the war was not at fault and thereby pointed accused finger at late chief Obafemi Awolowo , the then financial minister and Yoruba elder statesman and other well known Hausa-Yoruba politicians; that they were the ones who blew pepper of war into the eye of Igbos and made them battle internal dearth, poverty-stricken wants out of their flaming hatred for the Igbo indigenes, which later resulted into inevitable genocide of the innocent Igbo women, children and the Biafran militia. Though many of the Awolowo’s contemporaries have spoken on his behalf, (a rejoinder that seems a sent back response of chief Awolowo to professor Achebe from the grave), claiming that all what Achebe recounts in his book concerning him are blatant lies distanced from truth; that Awo who Achebe portrayed as someone beating the drum of ‘tear-apart’ was not the one denied the Igbos of their grant from the federal government and stopped importation of food to the Eastern part; and that Igbo were their greatest enemies who summoned war for themselves.
In an open-door interview with one of the Awoites, the interviewee established the fact that after the war, late chief Jeremiah Awolowo wrote a reintegrating letters to Achebe who was in abroad by then and some prominent Igbo elder statesmen who had flown out of the country at the onset or before the commencement of the war that they should come back to their fatherland for the war had ended and the nation was again in harmony and amity. He also made it clear that all the Igbos shares of the national cake denied them during the war were later sent back to them.
But my own opinion is far different from the political
juxtaposition and socio-economic point of view from which the book and its
author are judged. I am mainly concerned about the assertion of many Nigerians
that Achebe is a villain and foe of progress; that he shouldn’t have released
the book when the nation is still in hot soup of economic liquidation,
political imbalance and turbulence, unstable security coupled with the
atrocious insurgence of the self-acclaimed religion-coated Boko-haramists,
Niger-Delta militancy, public rumpus and hullaballoo which have grown wings and
been the order of the day. As a literary-minded individual, I believe that art
should not be for art sakes.
Literature should be an open window to historical collections and contemporary developments in the creation of art which can be located within the ambits of the society; a mirror through which the societal issues are sighted with passion, credited if deem fit and condemned woefully if that is what taken through the pen. The fact that Chinua Achebe released his book while the nation is still in the grime and gridlock of political asymmetry is not the matter that should be deemed fit of causing headache or any unnecessary alarm and brouhaha, but all what the book itself addresses with close proximity to the issues on ground are what should be king on our hearts.
Literature should be an open window to historical collections and contemporary developments in the creation of art which can be located within the ambits of the society; a mirror through which the societal issues are sighted with passion, credited if deem fit and condemned woefully if that is what taken through the pen. The fact that Chinua Achebe released his book while the nation is still in the grime and gridlock of political asymmetry is not the matter that should be deemed fit of causing headache or any unnecessary alarm and brouhaha, but all what the book itself addresses with close proximity to the issues on ground are what should be king on our hearts.
More than two decades now, Nigeria has been in
blood-curdling battle with corruption in every sector. People are clamouring on
daily basis without instantaneous succour; many Nigerians are homeless,
hopeless in their fatherland to the point that many had committed suicide when
the financial responsibilities have become inescapable burdens. The rate at
which social vices get escalatorily aggravated is enough to drown this nation
into the pool of calamity if not for the inestimable mercy of God on innocents.
Nigeria has many best brains all over the world that could have been the sources
of prides and joy for this nation, but who dares come back when those at home
are dying like candles in the struggles for the survival of the fittest in the
wind. I wonder why we are blaming these ‘lookers-
of- home at –far’ in another countries, contributing towards the progress
of someone’s fatherland. No wonder, best-brains in literary realm and
award-wining Nigerian writers like Helon Habila, Ben Okri, Chimanda Ngozi
Adichie, Professor Adebayo William, among others who are also world widely
known in their different fields of study have flown for green pasture in abroad.Coupled with these is the failure of scholars like Achebe and Osundare who should have permanently come back home at their age but insist on having their last breath overseas- what a pitiable mind-bending loss for this Nation! In my view, Achebe doesn’t deserve culpability for the message of his book because it is what known that Nigeria is still in the soup of bad governance. Why that the federal government has never aimed at finding any way-out to these afore-stated hindrances in spite that Nigerian government does seek international aids from world bodies and U.S? No average Nigerian will deny the fact that the elephant share of these aids is being siphoned into the foreign accounts of top Nigerian politicians. They live in immeasurable ecstasy and untold opulence while crumb is due to the masses of over one hundred and fifty million populations. It should be noted that most of the parts where Achebe comes from are in putrefying insolvency and destitution, despite the fact that ninety-percent of national resources is derived from these places, yet the federal government arm folds itself without giving hope for these inhabitants. No wonder these people have been clamouring for separation.
Another civil war
is looming at the corner with the present threat of the Odinma people to break
up from Nigeria. And in order not to
witness this brutal ethnic estrangement and tribal rupture again in this nation,
Professor Chinua Achebe tries to call our attention in his book ’’There Was a
Country’’. His book encompasses contemporary societal relevance which every Nigerian
is unavoidably concerned. What Achebe does (which I can describe as self re-awakening)
is one of the objectives which literature has come to address. We should not
forget that it was in this war that Christopher Okigbo, one of the Nigerian
poets of early sixties and others who we do not have their names in the book of
memory lost their precious lives. Why that Nigerian government has never marked
a day for their remembrance? These people could have by now been good
ambassadors of Nigeria in anywhere they may be if rifles and bomb of war have
not truncated their lives and deafened their ears to the anguished clamour of
their brethren and other casualties left behind. What of many innocent women
and children who succumbed and kowtowed to death in the war? Who can say if
those massacred innocent lads will take Nigeria to Promised Land?
I am of the opinion that ‘’There Was a Country’’ is a book that calls for close appraisal of this nation from the day it was amalgamated and named Nigeria. It is not Achebe’s book that will address the issues concerning humanity and social relevance. Miss Stowe’s book ‘’Uncle Tom’s Cabin’’ was one of the books directly noted for movement against slavery in U.S.A; writers like Charles Dickens have used their books as instrument against societal malignance and socio-political indecency. Foremost African poets like Leopold Sedar Senghor and David Diop, and Dennis Brutus fought against racial discrimination weaponed against Black-Africans by the Whites. We have seen many works of literature which were the catalysts behind positive change and reformation, and if There Was A Country can also revive that wave of consciousness from debris of wounded Nigerian by merging the present situation with the scenarios of civil war, I believe the hope of the coming ’Messiah’ and promised land will not be so long as it seems presently.
I am of the opinion that ‘’There Was a Country’’ is a book that calls for close appraisal of this nation from the day it was amalgamated and named Nigeria. It is not Achebe’s book that will address the issues concerning humanity and social relevance. Miss Stowe’s book ‘’Uncle Tom’s Cabin’’ was one of the books directly noted for movement against slavery in U.S.A; writers like Charles Dickens have used their books as instrument against societal malignance and socio-political indecency. Foremost African poets like Leopold Sedar Senghor and David Diop, and Dennis Brutus fought against racial discrimination weaponed against Black-Africans by the Whites. We have seen many works of literature which were the catalysts behind positive change and reformation, and if There Was A Country can also revive that wave of consciousness from debris of wounded Nigerian by merging the present situation with the scenarios of civil war, I believe the hope of the coming ’Messiah’ and promised land will not be so long as it seems presently.
I appreciate the certain measure of confidence in your composition. However, I doubt if any redactional effort was made before uploading this piece. Anyway, bravo bro!
ReplyDeleteThanks for passing by brother. sincerely i have not read the text before writing this piece.As a literary person, i just wrote on what i thought should be.
ReplyDelete