There Was An Author….With Integrity

"One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised"-Professor Chinua Achebe


The heat was too much  that midnight as there was no light(it has been the norm). I found it difficult to sleep.I was just toiling up and down,decided to see if I could read up anything on the internet when I first saw the news on sahara reporters.Professor Chinualumogu Albert Achebe is dead!This cannot be true I thought.  Not after I just finished his latest book-There was  a country.I browsed through the internet and alas,njinji ejiela! Ebelebe egbuola! Prof Chinua Achebe the great had truly died. I was really saddened. How can death take this enigma?

Professor Achebe even at 82 still had lots to offer the world.Prof Achebe joined Brown in September 2009 and was its David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana Studies until his death.Death has taken the father of modern African writing.His works impacted us all one way or the other.From things fall apart to There was a country. Professor Achebe was so many things to so many people,but one thing I liked about him was his integrity.He never messed with it.Men like these are scarce in the world of today.His integrity was next to none.Imagine our country with men like this(at the helm).

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"I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state Anambra where a small clique of renegades openly boasting it's 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". With these words Professor Achebe rejected the honour of the commander of the Federal Republic which was offered him by the Obasanjo Government in 2004.There was no way he was going to receive an honor from a government that is not honorable.His action is quite rare in this clime,where people pay whatever it takes to get the same honor.An honor that has been bastardized.An honor that is given to just anybody,criminals too.It shows how much he loved Nigeria.There was no way he was going to receive that honor with so many Nigerians suffering out there.He always believed Nigeria had no reason to be a poor nation,what with the resources that abound.He always believed our problem has been that of leadership from eons,till date.He was a defender of the poor.He must have thought of what good it would be for him to get the CFR honor while his people languished.There are not much men like that in Nigeria.In 2011 he was offered the same honor when the reason he rejected the first offer had not been addressed let alone solved.He subsequently rejected same.The literary icon was full of morals.How many would have shelved their personal gains for the good of the masses?The Prof wanted to,if nothing else draw the attention of the world to the plight of the Nigerian people.Think about it,what business does Nigeria have with being poor?What business does our country have with having low life expectancy?52!We are a rich people with bad leaders.It is even getting worse by the day.Chinua Achebe wanted a good Nigeria.He had the hope that he was going to see a better Nigeria in his time.It was not to be.Happenings recently must have hastened his death.The recent bloodbath in Kano by the Boko haram.The presidential pardon and embrace of corruption.It must have been too much for him to take.Prof Achebe showed us that integrity is not rocket science.Picture a Nigeria where our leaders shunned narcissism and focus on the people they lead.It will happen and i believe that will be so soon.

What will you do for a hundred million dollars?Sincerely what will you do?Ok,lets just say you were being offered the money on a platter.You just do not do anything for it,just  give the go ahead for someone to use your work as a title to a movie.50 cents an American rapper spent most of 2010 shooting a movie he was to title Things fall apart-the story of an American football player diagnosed with cancer.50 cents was not aware(I wonder where he's been) that things fall apart was published by professor Chinua Achebe in 1958 some years before 50cents was born and that the novel was Nigeria's most famous novel.Professor Achebe's lawyers approached 50cents who allegedly offered 1 million dollars to hold on to the title ,Things fall apart,for his movie.To professor Achebe that was an insult.The novel was published 17 years before 50cents was born and is listed as the most read book in modern African literature.50 cents soon got his reply.The title will not even be sold for 1billion pounds!That movie was renamed all things fall apart.it's just a title for crying out loud!Why did he not sell the damn title and make his money,after all he was an old man that was neither rich nor poor.It was his chance to get rich before meeting his maker.But No!Not Achebe.He was a rare kind of breed.To him there is more to a hundred million dollars.What a man!That's the man we just lost.

A man that gave us his personal account of the civil war since we were not taught in our schools.A man that stood for what he believes -that we should not repeat the mistakes of the past because we are too stubborn to learn from them.

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Nigeria can be great again.Professor Achebe believed so till death.Do you?Then let us all get some morals.

Adieu Okeosisi Ogidi!La n'udo,Prof!

Chiechefulam Ikebuiro
[email protected]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters

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