By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

Who doesn't know Chinua Albert Achebe, the writer of the literary classic, “Things Fall Apart”? He is one of the founding fathers of the modern African literature. An alumnus of the University of Ibadan, his contemporaries in the writing enterprise include, but not limited to, Wole Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, and Christopher Okigbo. As a writer, he produced works in all the genres of literature. His forte was in the area of prose, however. Achebe, whose ouvre teems with works, which are classics, deserves to be honoured, even posthumously.

It is worthy of note that his novel, “Things Fall Apart”, published by Heineman publishers in 1958, blazed the trail in novel writing in Africa. His novels, namely “Things Fall Apart”, “Arrow of God”, and “No Longer At Ease”, are a trilogy. They explore the theme of culture contact, which was brought about by the British people's colonization of Nigeria. And they are anthropological works that encapsulate the Igbo cosmology and cultural practices.

His other works like “Anthills of The Savannah”, “Girls At War”, “Beware Soul Brother”, and “There Was A Country” are good books which thrill literature aficionados from different parts of the world. Little wonder, Achebe was tipped countless times to win the Nobel prize for literature. The prize eluded him during his life time, however. But winning that coveted and prestigious prize is not the only benchmark or criterion for determining a writer, who has achieved global literary fame.

Aside literature, for which he's widely known, Chinua Achebe was a politician. During the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, which lasted from 1967 to 1970, he was an emissary of peace for Biafra. And in the second republic, he was an active member of the People's Redemption Party (PRP), a party with a socialist leaning. It was a party of the talakawas or the commoners. Achebe's identification with the party revealed a side to his personality: he had empathy for the poor.

Not surprisingly, in the fourth republic, he rejected a national honour on the grounds that his home state of Anambra had been turned into a fiefdom by bad political leaders. In succeeding years, he turned down other national honour(s), which the government gave him. His rejection of national honours was symbolic of his protest against bad political administration that obtained in Nigeria, then.

However, after the death of the iconic writer, a rash of posthumous honours had come his way. An airport located at Aguleri, Anambra state, is named after him. A library sitting on the premises of Idemili North LGA headquarters, Ogidi, bears his name. And recently, Gov. Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state unveiled his statue, the erection of which was commissioned by the Ogidi town union organization. The statue is at the popular Ugwu Nwasike roundabout, Ogidi, Anambra state.

But the unveiling of the statue sparked public outrage as it bears little resemblance to the legendary writer. A great number of people who are digital citizens expressed disappointment with that sculptural piece of art, saying that it caricatured Achebe. Other people said that the symbolisms of the statue matter more than its sculptural perfectness. Incredibly, they downplayed its grotesque appearance.

But beyond naming an airport after Achebe, and erecting his statue at a popular road intersection, a literary prize, if not yet instituted, should be instituted for honouring Chinua Achebe. The Chinua Achebe literary prizes will spur young people, who have literary bent, to emulate him.

And as he embodied love of literary scholarship, and ranked as the greatest novelist in Africa, educational institutions should be named after him. Those schools should serve as the bastions of the ideals and virtues he embodied, and as the preservers of the legacies he left behind.

Let the right thing be done.

•Chiedu Uche Okoye, a poet, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State. He can be reached via 08062220654 and 09125204141

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