Less than 48 hours after the demise of Professor Chinua Achebe, his Ogidi home town was thrown into awe, as his domestic staff recounted their encounter with the man ‘when he came visiting’.
According to one of the house-keepers, a sister in-law to the deceased, Mrs. Nonyelum Okoli, “There is this lift that they used in carrying him up. That lift had remained like that sine he travelled. So, yesterday (Friday), I came to clean the house as usual and discovered that it was moving. It was closed, but I do not know who opened it.
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“Then when I came into his palour, I felt his presence and I spoke to him that I came to collect something, and the noise stopped.
“He even came this morning (Saturday) and you would hear steps and those places he normally stayed would be moving as if someone touched them. Then I told him: my in-law, I have come to clean the house because very soon people would start visiting our home. Then the noise and vibration stopped after I had said so.”
Similarly, Achebe’s kinsmen told Sunday Independent on Saturday that their brother must have been regretting why he had to die at a time he had important issues he would have loved to resolve before death.
They said Achebe had two important issues to settle in the sleepy community which, according to them, include boundary disputes with their neighbours.
Another issue he did not thrash, which was the most important to him, was to make sure that the right person was chosen as the traditional ruler of the kingdom, a source told our correspondent.
The traditional ruler of the community, Engr. Walter Anobi, died about 15 years ago when Achebe was the president-general of Ogidi Town Union.
Since then, Ogidi community in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State had been under a regent, S.N. Okeke (Akunwata of Ogidi).
Speaking with reporters on Saturday in Ogidi, the immediate past president-general of the town, Uba Onubogu, said those issues the literary giant failed to settle gave him sleepless nights.
“We know that those issues will be bothering him anywhere he is now, because he was singing it that those problems were his greatest headache in Ogidi, and he had started making moves towards realising them until he had their fatal accident,” Onubogu said.
“It was the accident that made him not to fulfil his dream of bringing neigbouring towns around Ogidi together and not picking our monarch.
“He told us that he had made contacts with the state and federal governments to settle the age-long disputes in the communities. But as it stands, those dreams have died with him.
“If not for that accident which almost claimed his life that particular time, most of the things Ogidi community had been lacking would have been here, because his presence was always intimidating to anybody or government.”
Joining the list of sympathisers, Senator Chris Ngige who hails from the same Idemili Federal Constituency, said: “I write on behalf of the Ngige Clan of Alor in Idemili South Local Government Area and the entire good people of Anambra Central Senatorial District to commiserate with the Achebe family and the entire Ikenga Village of Ogidi in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State on the passing on of this great man, icon, mentor, father, a renowned author and patriarch, Chinualumogu Albert Achebe, in Boston Massachusetts, United States of America, at the age of 82.
“He was a literary giant with a special talent and style that capture events in classical natural ways, with the environment being the normal Nigerian rural setting or city. He was the numero uno (number one) among his peers in the literary world; his flagship novel, Things Fall Apart, rank as one of the most read novels all over the world, having been translated into more than 35 languages. My senatorial district, which he was a constituent, Anambra State, Nigeria and Africa have lost one of her activists, a literary prince, a welfarist, and worthy ambassador. His demise has obviously marked a depletion among the crop of activist-writer-poets.
“No doubt, we are going to miss him greatly. However, death is something that must come when it will come. We, therefore, take solace in the fact that he would have joined the saints above in our Lord’s bosom. I pray that God, who kept him all these years on earth with us, would give us, his family and the entire people of Anambra State the fortitude to bear this great loss, and may his gentle soul rest in peace.”
And National Publicity Secretary of United Progressives Party (UPP), Ogbuehi Dike, said: “His death is a monumental national tragedy coming at a time the nation needs his advice on critical issues that would uplift our frail democracy. For over 50 years, he bestrode the literary world like a colossus and remained the conscience of the nation.
“His recent book, There was a Country, is a testament to his patriotism and courage in tackling sensitive national issues. He left his footsteps in the sands of time through his ever-inspiring book, Things Fall Apart.
“We mourn a statesman, a detribalised Nigerian and a firebrand author who influenced his generation and the entire world through his creative works. We are sad that the great Iroko has fallen.
“We share the grief of members of his family and all those affected by his death. We are consoled that he lived a life worthy of emulation.”
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