Chinua Achebe On Nigeria's Future-NEWSWEEK

If you are asking what Achebe has done for your country then you must be a pure breed fool. I'm not even Nigerian or African but we have a course named after this man. His style of writing, his work as a writer and what he stands for has made him a global figure both in the literacy world and beyond. No other African has been compared to him because his uniqueness shines through his work and his master pieces. Give credit to who deserves...Achebe has shone some positive light on Nigeria and Africa as a whole through his work and that's an undeniable and unchangeable fact.

i totally agree with u.

Come on MY PEOPLE collectively we failed ourselves, Its as simple as that. We are NOT LACKING good leaders, lets just say we have ALLOWED and continue to allow these EVIL TRAITORS TO UNDERMINE AND EXTERMINATE NIGERIA'S BRILLIANT LEADERS.

i live in india for my studies,and i can tell you. we r totally different both leaders and followers.their leaders are too corrupt but never fail their ppl.i dont know how to tell the difference.is not too late for nigeria but revolution is inevitable for change.

Submitted by gboluwaga (not verified) on October 18, 2010 - 20:33.
Cosmos wrote, "I wonder why some people are asking what Achebe has done for Nigeria? What do you want him to do for Nigeria?" Cosmos, I am indeed sorry for what I wrote regarding Achebe on what he did for Nigeria. I may have written wrongly because I was responding to Kelechi emotionally. I take my word back.

Yep, I read "Things Fall Apart", and I believed Prof. Achebe wrote "No Longer At

Where about are you and permit me to ask if you have some education in you?How do you define achievements and how can you actually pick up ur keyboard and post that shit

You need some education and please go back to history

I respect this man alot and he a pride to nigeria. I read his book when i was 10

Cosmos wrote, "I wonder why some people are asking what Achebe has done for Nigeria? What do you want him to do for Nigeria?" Cosmos, I am indeed sorry for what I wrote regarding Achebe on what he did for Nigeria. I may have written wrongly because I was responding to Kelechi emotionally. I take my word back.

Yep, I read "Things Fall Apart", and I believed Prof. Achebe wrote "No Longer At Ease." professor Achebe is a great man, and I hope he recovers, and if he doesn't I hope he enjoys good life. Prof. Soyinka is a giant and so is Prof. Achebe.

On this note, I rest my case on our dear Achebe.

Once again, to the readers, please accept my apology.

pls kindly take ur self to d nearest psychiatric clinic. U ARE SICK. How can u bring such garage language here...?

it is so sad dat u hail from the East.............ur ar such a big cunt..............what could be the Africa in u.................or ar u just assuming that miracle will happen.................bastard.................!!

Achebe remains a Hero and his views are sacrosanct. From his wealth of experience and sound knowledge base, he speaks.
@Morufu: I was amazed at your absurdity and choice of word in describing this hero. It only shows the depth of your ignorance.

I will pay any amount to hear Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka speak to me about writing. I have been writing since i was born but i am yet to couple what ever i have done up. Long live Both of u, what ever u say or do.... I support.

It beats my imagination that somebody could deride Prof Achebe by calling him cripple. I wish to remind all of you that the great Zik of Africa once cursed those that were calling him old man simply becuase he came out to contest election in 1983. He said that they will not see old age and it came to pass that some of them even died before Zik. So if you have called Achebe a cripple, you better ask for forgivenss otherwise wait for the wrath of God.

The trouble with Nigeria is that while oil wealth is in the niger delta, political and military power is exercised by people from another section of the country without oil wealth. Unfortunately, this section that control power have the least belief in one Nigeria despite their oil wealth - induced profession to that idea. The north was practically dragged into this unholly marriage by our colonial masters and one-Nigeria advocates like Zik. The result is that buried deep in the psyche of those who ruled us since is the belief that Nigeria will eventually disintegrate;hence, their attitude towards the nation is that of people on a sinking ship. They plunder with reckless abandon and cart their loot to safe dry land overseas and come back for more. They are so untrusting of the Nigerian project that they wont even invest in it. We call it corruption but they see it as sensible precaution against a rainy day. A rainy day that has refused to come and will never come. Nigeria will not disintegrate but unbelievers from both north and south will give way by natural attrition or violence so the nation will move forward.

On the Chinue Achebe's last question, the West are not responsible for bad leadership & corruption in Nigeria. Immediately one is a LGA Chairman, the next move is to send family overseas, buy a house & siphon monthly allocation to his family overseas. This is same with Governors, Ministers, high ranking government officials in Costums, Prisons, Legislatures, House of Reps & all government parasatals. Also Bank MDs & their Directors siphon shareholders money oversea. The West is not asking these unpatriotic Political Office holders & economic giants to sihpon Nigeria's oil revenue overseas thereby causing huge capital flight. As a matter of fact, this practice benefit West's economic growth. gaskytruth@gmail.com

God bless you Prof. for all you have done for this 'wayward child', as you often refer to Nigeria. I pray you are around for many, many more years to come.

you are so full of shit, u dear to speak such ill of a man who where he stands ur coco nut head will not be allowed a mile near it.maybe we should wait and see what your children turn out to be!

@sumanguru,I owe you no inch of apology. You deem it fit to insult prof Achebe,cos you lack wisdom and understanding to read the hand writings on the wall concerning the problems of Nigeria and her needs. Tell me where on earth every citizen of any nation must first go into politics or become a politician before his/her contribution to the growth and developement is recognised? Wisdom is not by force,but a gift,and it happens that you ve none. The only thing that remain unchange is change itself. You need change in your life,the way you reasons,thinking and does things. That your BOKO HARAM style of life need change. It's time to go back o school and probably Pro Achebe may end up being the only person and medicine to cure your sickness my dear Sumanguru.

They have done all they can in their choosen fields and achieved fame. Constructive Critism is like a mirror to see yourself. If the past greedy leaders have retraced their steps from the critisms of these people, Nigeria will have been better.

How dare you call Achebe this name. Perhaps you should change your name to Kele ekwensu. Achebe is a writer not a politician. He's done more than anyone to enable Igbos understand their history beyond the colonial babble we were forced to read in books. He's a pan Africanist. Soyinka is a brilliant man that everyone loves to listen to. Soyinka is a Nobel laureate I'd remind you, and Achebe's books have been translated into every major language in this world. So many people of various racial backgrounds identify with Okonkwo in 'Things Fall Apart'.
Achebe went to America because he had a car accident and heartless people would not go to help him by the roadside till his injuries became untreatable. Ask yeye leaders why they can't enable all our trained doctors to stay in Nigeria and have instead gone to build up the NHS & USA health system.
Achebe & Soyinka are men of literature. In other countries, writers merely stick to award shows and celebrity culture. We should thank our lucky stars that these 2 men care enough to try and help Nigerians resolve their problems. You're so cruel to mock someone's disability.

I wonder why some people are asking what Achebe has done for Nigeria? What do you want him to do for Nigeria? And what have you done for Nigeria yoursel? For your information, Achebe is not a poltician, he has done his part, as a writer a lot of Nigerians were impacted positively by his works. Every body has his own work, a carpenter can not do a Brick layer's job. Instead of asking what has Achebe done for Nigeria, why not ask all these polticians that are seeking one post or other what they will do for Nigeria or better still, ask what all those past leaders has done for Nigeria.

morufu kelechi wrote that,
"This brain dead cripple(achebe) and psychotic wole shoyinka are selfish tribalist who have always engage in destructive critism." Maybe you are right about Achebe, but you are wrong about Wole Soyinka. You probably added Soyinka name just to say that you are fair. Prof. Soyinka is a fighter and had been all his life. As for Achebe, he never did anything of significance politically. Of course he wrote his famous "Things Fall Apart" and a few other books. But you can not compare Achebe with Soyinka. The latter is more of a literary giant than the former. Of course you should expect that, because Achebe started earlier than Soyinka and perhaps Soyinka learned to improve upon Achebe's work!

Why I admire the erudite professor, what has he done to help Nigeria? Yes, he wrote Things Fall Apart, then, what? Of course he wrote other books. But what has he done politically to help Nigeria? Nothing. By the way, Achebe is a tribalist. He needs to borrow a leaf from the "almighty" Professor Wole Soyinka!

Papa, You nailed their useless heads. The problem of Nigeria is the leadership. Hope they will all read this peace and adjust before Jehovah punishment come upon them.

I actually believe that the problem with Nigeria is that we talk alot and do little. Men of courage ACT and live the rest to history. If nigeria mi=ust change, we must ACT starting from our little circles of influence. The Leaders are deaf today so the people must take the lead, but it starts individually. Thanks

Dear John E,
I wonder why you think your view is somehow different to Prof. Achebe. Prof. Achebe's view is not new.
The view has been expressed by most diaspora members for years now.
As you know leaders are not born, they come from followers who selectively emulate & learn good leadership behaviours. So in that sense your view is not different to Prof. Achebe. Malaysians, Singapore & others who kicked out colonialists from their countries about the same period as Nigeria (50 years ago)have had good leaders (BBC interview of citizens of this nations confirmed this view) who led by examples and the rest is history.
Well, let's commend Jonathan Goodluck for taking the first bold step by offering the nations electricity to privatisation & his preparedness to work in partnership with them in its total management.

John A Oladele
B.A.(Hons.)Lond.(Buss.& Corp.Finance) Dip.(Hsg. Law & Management) MCIM., M.Inst.M, MABE

@Nwajagu Mike: "how dare you call a man of the people such undeserved name?"

What undeserved name did I call a man of the people? Perhaps you should go back and read my comments before jumping in to the fray so that you can make an intelligent contribution. Look, my friend, it is not about tribe, clan or sect. I noted how you simplistically concluded that I am a Hausa man or at least from the North but you would be surprised to learn that I am not.

I am passionate about this country's development and I don't care by whose hand it comes. Almost 50 years after independence, we have demonstrated that we are incapable of ruling ourselves and developing the motherland inspite of fantastic national wealth accruing from oil resources (Do I have any opposing views here?). That given, should n't we try something else?

Can you imagine the wanton, bare faced robbery going on in the National Assembly where some group of people come together to share our common patrimony among themselves with reckless abandon when the current British PM, David Cameron's first act in office was to reduce across board the emoluments of politicians including himself. Do you see any Nigerian ruler doing this?

We MUST move away from sentiments and address sincerely and holistically our national maladies with a view to solving them.

The trouble with Nigeria is actually a leadership problem. Take for instance, during Buhari/Idiagbon regime, Nigerians followed the government's stand on discipline. The streets were very clean. People always looked up to their leaders.
It is difficult for a change to occur from the bottom to top. The reverse is usually the case. But Prof. Chinua Achebe suggests that the Nigerian masses can come together inspite of their differences to demand for good leadership. That's the only option to our present predicament.

While the highly respected professor Chinua Achebe is right, and while mr John Ekundayo is wrong.

Mr John do you think at the moment PATRIOTIC FOLLOWERSHIP in Nigeria can emerge soon with a strong, violent voice for change? Professor Achebe said good educational training will help, yes!

What is the level of literacy in Nigeria? How many people in Nigeria knows that the political sovereignty lies on the followership? Is there anything like rule of law in Nigeria?

In Thailand and philippines the followership can pull down any bad leadership from power because of their high level of literacy and strong political
awareness. In Nigeria case Poverty, lack of education, ethinicity and religion are the handy tools of intimidation and supression by our leaders.

So how can good leadership emerge in Nigeria?

Who will lead the revolution in Nigeria?

Can you die for your country Nigeia?

North, south and west what will happen to the forth dimension south-south the nation's wallet.

These are the reasons Nigeria may not have patriotic

followership to lead movement for change for now.

Lets stop playing the blame game. The Oyinbo man did this, The Oyinbo man did that blah blah excuses. When did oyinbo man leave? Answer 1960! ABOUT 50 YEARS AGO !!!!!!!!!!. Come on MY PEOPLE collectively we failed ourselves, Its as simple as that. We are NOT LACKING good leaders, lets just say we have ALLOWED and continue to allow these EVIL TRAITORS TO UNDERMINE AND EXTERMINATE NIGERIA'S BRILLIANT LEADERS. THE SOLUTION: WE MUST FIGHT BACK AND EXTERMINATE ALL THESE TRAITORS TO PAVE WAY FOR THE HONEST AND BRILLIANT LEADERS TO HOLD THE FORT AND LEAD US INTO A GREAT AND PRODUCTIVE FUTURE.

All what you have said is true,we lack good leaders that have the will of integrity to improve the development Nigeria.

I agree with professor Achebe that we have had more than enough time to make corrections to the system,even if colonialism left us with some disadvantages.Please check out my blog:http://henryik2009.wordpress.com.