Author Achebe turns down Nigeria honor ― again

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) ― The author of the internationally acclaimed novel “Things Fall Apart” and other works examining the political failures and corruption of oil-rich Nigeria has rejected a national honor for a second time over what he says are the country’s failings.

Chinua Achebe’s decision to turn down the ceremonial title that he would have received Monday brought a curt reaction from Nigeria’s government, which has long tried to portray the country as a properly developing democracy with a campaign slogan of “Good People, Great Nation.”

However, as the nation faces increased attacks from a radical Muslim sect, continued banditry in its oil-rich delta and a population throttled by endemic poverty, some wonder whether the 80-year-old’s writings ring truer today than ever before.

President Goodluck Jonathan sought to give Achebe the honorary title of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, which the leader bestowed on diplomats, businessmen and military leaders during a ceremony Monday. However, Achebe turned down the honor in a short, terse letter to the president in which he noted that he also rejected the award in 2004.

That year, Achebe told then-President Olusegun Obasanjo that his concerns about insecurity and corruption in the nation made it “too dangerous for silence” as he worried his home state of Anambra had become “a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom.” This year, the writer told Jonathan he had to “regretfully decline the offer again.”

“The reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed let alone solved,” Achebe wrote in the letter, a copy of which was given to the Associated Press on Monday. “It is inappropriate to offer it again to me.”

The move apparently surprised Jonathan’s administration, which came to power in an April election observers called largely fair, though it sparked religious and political rioting that left 800 people dead.

In a statement Sunday, the presidency called Achebe “a national icon,” but suggested his “regrettable decision” came from misinformation from not living in Nigeria. Achebe now lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he serves as a professor of Africana studies at Brown University.

“Coming as it does, against the background of the widely acclaimed electoral reforms undertaken by the Jonathan administration, the claim by (Professor) Achebe clearly flies in the face of the reality of Nigeria’s current political situation,” the statement read.

Many view Achebe as one of the pre-eminent voices of dissent and conscience in his native Nigeria. His 1958 book “Things Fall Apart,” about a village leader’s fall from power as colonialists take hold of Nigeria, is considered the first work of postcolonial fiction in Africa. Achebe also strongly supported the breakaway Republic of Biafra during Nigeria’s brutal civil war in the late 1960s, which saw 1 million people killed from violence and hunger.