ABUJA—NATIONAL Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, Thursday, said that Nigerians have voted the late literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe as the Nigerian patriot whose selflessness inspired many since independence.

It was, indeed, a day of tributes yesterday for the late literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe, as dignitaries from all walks of life gathered to pay him tributes for promoting and showcasing excellence in his life time.

THE Senate yesterday urged the Federal Government to grant the late novelist, Professor Chinua Achebe, a state burial and name a major federal highway or street in Abuja after him.

MEMBERS of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, academic gurus and public servants yesterday in Awka held what was tagged ‘A day with Achebe’ during which they reflected on the writings of the late literary giant, Professor Chinua Achebe, who died in the United States of America, USA, early this year.

South East political leaders , Saturday met in Enugu to map out reception plans for President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to the funeral of the late literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe next week.

The controversies that trailed Prof. Achebe’s last book—There Was a Country: A Personal History Of Biafra—came from different perspectives. While some people saw the book as one that came to shed more light on the events of the Nigerian/Biafran war, others saw it as a book that should not have been published in the first place. The proponents of the second group came up with so many reasons—from the book being an attack on some personalities and a particular ethnic group, to Achebe being anti-Nigeria, one whose book, they claim, fanned the embers of disunity. But one of the reasons given by this group that caught my attention was the one that said that Achebe was bitter with a particular ethnic group because he failed to win the Nobel Prize in Literature which a kinsman of this ethnic group won in 1986. Even now that he has died, some articles have been written on this issue of Nobel Prize; while some are regretting that Achebe did not win the prize, others are pointing out from their personal views what Achebe should have written or should not have written in order to win the prize. Some are even praying and hoping that he wins the prize posthumously. At the end of the day, one almost gets the impression that Achebe set out to win the Nobel Prize in Literature but failed.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primate of All England (the ‘first bishop’ of England), and the head of the global Anglican communion, the Most Reverend Justin Welby has sent a letter of condolences to the Achebe family and has asked his distinguished World Mission Adviser Rev Canon Andrew Charles Wheeler of the Diocese of Guildford to be his representative at Professor Chinua Achebe’s funeral in Ogidi, Anambra State, Nigeria, on May 23rd, 2013.

The day the lion went away
The sun refused to rise
Even the birds refused to fly
For all things had fallen apart

LAGOS — NIGERIANS in the United Kingdom, will hold a memorial service and cultural reception for late literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe on May 18 in London as part of global farewell activities for the literary legend.

Our lives are defined by the inescapable influences of our times and experiences and writing is one avenue to entrap events for reflections, important references and the treasure of record-keeping. The outpouring of remarkable eulogies for Chinua Achebe is not surprising and added perspectives of his wonderful life cannot easily end. One, which I believe is salient of the literary Icon is that of an African activist and by implication an activist for humanity.

[This tribute is a second revision of a piece (REFLECTIONS ON CHINUA ACHEBE) which I wrote in 2000, and revised in 2007. His passing, in the third week of March 2013, has necessitated this revision.]   Chinua Achebe was a compelling figure, straight out of a Biblical saga. He was also, rather more prosaically, a friend […]

MY first encounter with Chinua Achebe was through the sociological cum literary eyes of the immortal and seminal Things Fall Apart (TFA), first as a secondary school aficionado of the in-any-form written word.

The passing of Chinua Achebe is a great loss not only for Nigeria and Africa but also for the world at large. I send my condolences and those of my brothers and sisters in The Gambia to our brethren of the great nation of Nigeria on the occasion of the death of the doyen of African literature, the most learned Chinua Achebe, “Towering Man of Letters” as the respected New York Times would call him. The loss of an icon and a repository of knowledge saddens us.

By CID Oguagha I learnt more than a lot from Ogbuefi Ugonabo, Professor Chinua Achebe. One of what I learnt  is the Igbo proverb, idols are made to be destroyed! When I encountered this proverb in one of the interviews he granted in the 1980s, I closed the newspaper with my index finger still in-between the […]

The National Transition Committee responsible for the burial arrangement of late Professor Chinualumogu Achebe has unveiled the programme.