Achebe and Aminu Kano: Two of a rare kind
I cannot remember exactly when I became conscious to begin to appreciate the political history of Nigeria, but one thing that will strike anyone who genuinely takes interest in Nigeria’s history beyond the roles played by the Azikiwes, the Awolowos and the Sardaunas in the emancipation of Nigeria is the contribution of Aminu Kano in arousing political consciousness of the masses of Nigeria. That consciousness inspired by Aminu Kano produced great politicians like the late Abubakar Rimi, second republic governor of Kano State, and Balarabe Musa, currently chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP).
Aminu Kano, founder of the defunct Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) in the first republic and also defunct People’s Redemption Party (PRP) in the second republic, was a fighter for the downtrodden (talakawa in Hausa). Though he died about 30 years ago, the political ideology he founded is still much alive in Kano and many other parts of the north. That is a measure of his impact as a politician.
Besides the talakawa in Kano and the tribe of progressive politicians that formed the bulk of Aminu Kano’s followers, one other person – a giant in his own right – that bought into Aminu Kano’s political philosophy was Chinua Achebe, acclaimed father and grand-father of African literature.
In the weeks since his death in the United States, so much has been said about Achebe that it will be trite to comment further on Achebe’s greatness as a literary pathfinder. However, one missing link in all the commentaries so far is the political aspect of Achebe and his link with the progressive ideology of Aminu Kano. Achebe was an intellectual politician and it was he who perhaps paid the best tribute to Aminu Kano. Achebe had said if Aminu Kano was president of Nigeria, he (Aminu Kano) could be caught one day carrying a placard protesting in favour of the downtrodden only to discover later that he was protesting against his own government. For a man like Achebe, not given to frivolous talk, that was a profound statement and it captured the essential Aminu Kano.
In the second republic, Achebe had pitched tent with PRP out of his concern for the weakest of society, the poor masses. He could have joined the defunct Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) led by the late founder of modern Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe, a party which held sway in the southeast at the time, where he (Achebe) came from. If he was given to political opportunism, he could have gone to the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which controlled the centre. But out of political conviction, he went to PRP, which offered no obvious political advantage, conferred no political privilege and therefore held no real attraction to him beyond Aminu Kano’s proletarian ideology that Achebe was enamoured of.
Achebe rose to become deputy national president of the PRP, but that stint in partisan politics was cut short by the military intervention of December 1983 and any chance of going back was ruled out with the accident that left him on wheelchair in 1990.
In the absence of partisan politics, Achebe became a conscience of the nation while in the United States. He began the annual Achebe Colloquium on Africa in which speakers and opinion leaders are invited from different parts of the world to x-ray Africa’s problems and proffer solutions.
But his home state of Anambra was very dear to him and he kept abreast of developments not only in Nigeria as a whole but in Anambra State in particular. When an attempt was made to kidnap Chris Ngige, then governor of Anambra State, and the state became almost ungovernable in 2003/2004, Achebe rattled the then government of President Olusegun Obasanjo by rejecting the national honour awarded to him. Then it was generally believed that Chris Uba, who was the chief protagonist in the Anambra State imbroglio, derived his support from the presidency.
In rejecting the award, Achebe wrote to Obasanjo: “I write this letter with a very heavy heart. For some time now I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the presidency…. Nigeria’s condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honour awarded me in the 2004 Honours List.”
And in 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan tried to bring up the issue again by including Achebe in the honours list for that year. Achebe also declined but in a very terse statement. “The reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed let alone solved. It is inappropriate to offer it again to me. I must therefore regretfully decline the offer again,” he wrote to Jonathan.
On both occasions the globally-recognised writer was praised for the courage he displayed in rejecting the awards and in telling truth to power. In fact, for Achebe, there was never a lack of courage. He was a man who spoke with conviction even if it was against popular opinion. For instance, in 1987 when Obafemi Awolowo, elder statesman, died, and there was a torrent of tributes across Nigeria, Achebe came out to say that Awo did not deserve a national burial because he was only a sectional leader.
Talking about the fallen standard of education in Nigeria, he incurred the wrath of his fellow professors when he declared that the standard of education had fallen so much that even professors of English could no longer communicate effectively in English.
And his last book, There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, gave fresh perspective on one aspect of Nigeria’s history that Nigerians will like to forget or at best gloss over. His comments on Awo and war-time head of state, Yakubu Gowon, became very controversial and drew very heated debates across the country. That was vintage Achebe, a man who spoke his mind at all times.
That same forthrightness in Achebe was also the hallmark of Aminu Kano’s life. He never wavered in his determination to champion the cause of the masses. Both Achebe and Aminu Kano told truth to power even as they wanted the best for Nigeria. They were two of a rare kind.
MAX AMUCHIE
Amuchie is the Abuja bureau chief, BusinessDay.
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