As Yoruba Elites Blast Achebe Over New Book: “There Was A Country”

When I read an excerpt from the new book by literary giant, Chinua Achebe titled: “There Was A Country”, I knew instantly that the Yoruba elites that literally worship Chief Obafemi Awolowo would come out smoking with rage against Achebe for having the gut to voice something that was a historical fact and well documented: That hunger was used as a weapon of war against Biafra by the Nigerian state. I also expected the army of Yoruba leaning commentators in the blogosphere to use unprintable languages to describe Achebe and abandon the main issue at stake. I was right as all kinds of abusive languages have been used against Achebe by bloggers and other social media users.

In the book, which focuses on the Nigerian Civil War, Achebe claims that former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and the late Yoruba leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, initiated the economic policies that caused the deaths of over two million Igbos through starvation during the war. The so-called controversial paragraph from the book reads: “It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations.

“However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbo at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose – the Nigeria-Biafra War – his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams.

“In the Biafran case, it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation – eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.”

In a report on the reaction of the Yoruba elites to Achebe’s assertions on the book, the Tribune newspaper, itself established by Awolowo and still being run by the family, most Yoruba leaders slammed Achebe over his comments on the former premier of Western region.

A leader of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Senator Femi Okunrunmu, while reviewing the memoirs said that Achebe’s criticism of Awolowo suggested he was ‘‘ already getting senile.’’He added that the submissions were “tantamount to something coming from a child”.



In his reaction, a former governor of old Oyo State, Dr Omololu Olunloyo, said that it was unfortunate that people would still be dwelling on an event that occurred over 40 years ago.

Olunloyo said he suspected that Professor Achebe had a personal hatred for the sage,because of the nomination of Professor Wole Soyinka, a Yoruba man for Nobel award and his eventual emergence as the first African Nobel Laureate.

“The way the country is going, everybody cannot be happy but Achebe is bitter. He is not pleased that he didn’t receive the Nobel prize. Though a brilliant man, a good essayist and a man of culture, Achebe cannot be in the same fold with Soyinka.

“While Achebe writes only prose which can be extremely prosaic, Soyinka is into prose, poetry and drama. The richness and versatility of Soyinka’s works cannot be compared with that of Achebe.

A former Transport and Aviation Minister, Chief Ebenezer Babatope condemned Achebe over the publication of “total falsehood and distortion of facts” against Chief Awolowo, describing him as a ‘’pathological liar.”

According to him, “while Achebe is free to write on any topic that suits his fancy, he has no right whatsoever to irresponsibly murder history by his recklessly attacking a great leader like Papa Awolowo.”

While urging all well-meaning people to disregard the latest “false publication in all its ramifications”, he assured that ‘’Nigerians should expect detailed, honest, factual and objective replies to Achebe’s nonsense after we have copies of the book in our hands.’

On his part, the president and founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Fredrick Fasehun said Achebe’s outburst was borne of the fact that “he did not know the personality of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.”

Mr Yinka Odumakin, said, “It is unfortunate that a great man of letters of Achebe’s status has descended to the arena of Biafran propagandists who are always ready to sacrifice the truth to achieve emotional blackmail.

“He has betrayed his intellectual calling by joining in the circulation of low quality rumours against Awo. I had looked forward to read the book, but now I doubt if I would pick up a copy even if dropped at my gate.”

Another senior citizen, Chief Ayo Fasanmi described as unfortunate, the comment of Achebe on Chief Awolowo.

Fasanmi said it was unfortunate that such a statement came from an octogenarian that ought to appreciate the enviable role Chief Awolowo played to guarantee national unity.

“It is sad that a highly revered novelist could descend to this level, especially now that the nation is trying to lay a foundation for the unity. It is an abomination. Nigeria would have been run aground, if not for the efforts of Chief Awolowo. Achebe has demonstrated his level of understanding of Nigeria politics. What Awolowo did was to save the country from the impending doom. He worked,fought and died for the unity of Nigeria.

Prof Tony Afejukwu, an Itsekiri leaders said: “I find the foremost novelist lambasting of our iconic politician and impeccable leader, Chief Awolowo utterly strange. But why should we really be surprised? Even in death, Awo, our Awo, is still the issue. This being said, we must dismiss the illustrious novelist who must sell his autobiography! He needs to attack Awo for the book to make appreciable sale, an inroad in western Nigeria of solidly educated and civilized denizens. But his tactic will backfire if truly that was an intention of Achebe, our respected, Achebe, who with this unforgettable grudge of decades will lose a huge chunk of respect of, and from discerning minds.

“Now we must ask: Did he expect Awo to device a strategy for Biafra to defeat Nigeria? In any case, Achebe ought to promote peace, understanding reconciliation and love as a foremost novelist of Nigeria, Africa and the world. He ought to be exemplary.”

One of the self imposed defenders of Yoruba interest and former minister of aviation, Chief Fani Kayode in a widely syndicated article entitled:”Obafemi Awolowo And Chinua Achebe’s Tale Of Fantasy”, accused Achebe of revisionism, adding that, “the truth is that Professor Chinua Achebe owes the Awolowo family and the Yoruba people a big apology for his tale of pure fantasy”. Note that Achebe did not attack the Yoruba race as a people, but rather dwelled on the infamous role of Awolowo, who was the second in command to the Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon during the war. How does attack on the activities of Awolowo equate attack on all Yorubas? It is on record that Achebe bears no grudge against the Yoruba people, after all he willingly gave out his daughter in marriage to a Yoruba man.



In a contribution posted on the Facebook, Mayowa Akinsola disagreed with Achebe. He wrote, “I consider this statement from the highly revered literary icon an attempt at sectional revisionism. Where emotion and sentiment rule our judgments, the ability to say the truth becomes a problem. Many countries in the world had experienced civil war before, America inclusive, so what we experience during the civil war was not new. “Let us forget about the incidents that led to the war, all the principal actors in that incident should be held responsible, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu inclusive.

“Awolowo was perfectly right when he said that everything in war was fair. War is not a child’s play, when you declare a war, a battle line is drawn, the result is always clear from the beginning, the game is either you win or you lose.” Also reacting to Achebe’s claims, Jesse Adeniji remarks, “Awo didn’t massacre two million people. Nigeria did, especially those of the Northern extraction who felt Kaduna Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna killed their icons.”



But Olusola Solarin chose to confine all matters relating to the civil war in the dustbin of history. He says, “Achebe should live the rest of his life happy. Nigeria and the Yoruba are existential realities today.”

Reacting to the issues raised on the book, Congress for Progressive Change(CPC) National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, who did not state whether he was speaking on behalf of the party or on his capacity as a Yoruba elite said: “From whichever perspective you look at it Chinua Achebe is a statesman, whose mastery of prose is globally acknowledged. The question is: what is the portent of this memoir by Professor Chinua Achebe at the twilight of his life? Does he intend to make us to continue a controversy that would definitely outlive him?”

He said the statement was capable of “triggering war”.

You can see that many Yoruba elites are angry with Achebe. Are they justified to be angry? Are they saying that Awo is infallible that whatever actions he took on earth was perfect and beyond reproach that historians and writers should never examine them and pass judgement based on their findings through research and personal account as did Achebe in his civil war memoirs? Has Awo been elevated to the status of a prophet that nobody can write anything negative against him even when the activities in question are well documented in local and foreign media?

As for people like Mayowa Akinsola who wrote in his facebook page that,”Awo is perfectly right when he said that everything in war was fair”, the fact remains that everything in war is not fair. This is because even in war there is a rule of engagement. If everything in war was fair, there would have been no ICC or war crime tribunals; If everything in war was fair there would have been no Nuremberg, where the Nazis were tried for war crimes mostly perpetrated against the Jews; If all in war is fair, Charles Taylor would have been in Liberia enjoying his retirement and not in prison; If all in war is fair, then the residents of Maiduguri would not have cried out against the atrocities allegedly being committed by the army currently fighting an insurgent war with Boko Haram.

What Achebe was drawing attention to was that before Rwanda genocide of 1994, and other now well known genocides in the continent and elsewhere in Africa there was a genocide committed against the Igbos. Achebe is not saying that Awo who incidentally is late or General Gowon who masterminded the policy of using starvation as a weapon of war, should be taken to ICC to answer to allegations of crimes against humanity: What he is asking is for the Nigerian state to recognize and acknowledge that the nation wronged a section of its country and let the nation move on, but with the knowledge that the country would not allow such injustice against any part of the country again, under any circumstance.

According to a famous statement attributed to pastor Martin Niemoller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group: “First they came for the communists,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist;Then they came for the socialists,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist;Then they came for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist;Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me”. Now you can paraphrase Niemoller’s words thus: “First they came for the Igbos, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t an Igbo; Then they came for the Ijaws and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t an Ijaw; Then they came for the Odi, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t from Odi; Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me”.

When we see evil committed we must rise in unison to condemn it no matter how well meaning the offender is. Today many elites in the north are complaining about the activities of the army in the north over their ongoing war with Boko Haram, but many of them looked the other way when genocide was committed against the Odi by the federal government under Obasanjo. Similarly for several years the army had been killing militants and innocent Niger Deltans including the destruction of communities with houses razed to the ground under the guise of pursuing militants, most Nigerians outside the region kept quiet, because they were not from the Niger Delta. Were there anybody from Yobe or Maiduguri who protested what the army had been doing in Niger Delta or in Odi or for that matter the genocide in Biafra, but today they want the world to come to their aid because of what the army is doing there.

If we want to build a united country we must rise up against injustice everywhere. Let our reasoning not be beclouded by religious or ethnic sentiments. That is basically what Achebe is driving at. And from the way I see it, Gowon who is still alive have not come out to challenge Achebe’s account which means that there is substance in the allegation. By the way if atrocities were not committed against the Igbos why was Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka imprisoned for kicking against the federal government actions during the war?