ONE was not too sure if the foremost literary stylist from Nigeria and Africa foresaw his passing on so soon? With his most recent slightly vituperative literary outing titled, There Was A Country, a literary-cum-historical bombshell on the Nigerian civil war in which he lampooned the persons of certain key figures of the fratricidal bloodbath such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the vice chairman of the Gowon regime who propounded the theory that starvation was a legitimate weapon of war and General Yakubu Gowon, whom he accused of spearheading a genocide against the Igbos.

Following the sudden exit of Chinua Achebe, doyen of African literature,founding editor of the African Writers Series and one of the founders of the Association of Nigerian Authors, the National Executive Council of the Association of Nigerian Authors is organizing a cross-country Tribute by all its chapters of the federation in honour of her departed grand trustee.

Management, staff and students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, are in a state of mourning following the death of world renowned literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe.

THIS column last week was about Chinua Achebe, his works and his legacies. I knew that there will be a backlash, and had even attributed some of it to the legacies the late legend left behind.

IN the nadir of winter on Saturday, November 23, 1985, I arrived in Stockholm to investigate the neglect of African writers in the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature since its inception. I knew nobody in that sub-Arctic inclement part of our planet.