…As literary icon Achebe is buried
…Governors Obi, Orji locked out of church
President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday tasked traditional rulers, clergymen, politicians and businessmen in the country to help fix the country.
He spoke at Saint Phillip’s Anglican Church in Ikenga Ogidi, in Idemili Local Government Area, Anambra State, during the funeral service of the literary icon, Prof. Chinualumogu Achebe.
The president recalled how the late Achebe impacted a lot in his life during his childhood days, adding that he had come to appreciate God for creating somebody like the deceased.
He said, ‘’Though, I did not have enough time to interact with him, but I did interact with those who are like him and with mama here (Achebe’s wife Christie), I wondered whether he loved his books more than his wife.
‘’He used literature to express his ideas of life, he used ‘things fall apart’ to illustrate the loss of our value system, we should ask ourselves , have we changed from what Achebe talked about?
‘’ We should work hard so that by the time Achebe (Jnr) will write his own book, he will write that ‘there is a country’ and ‘not there was a country.’
‘’All of us should come together, traditional rulers, clergymen and the big business moguls, we have to correct those things, there is nothing wrong with us. It is just a matter of bringing back those values.”
President Jonathan said that Achebe in his book, also acknowledged that the 2011 general elections were almost perfect, adding that ‘’ if we can fix our electoral process, things will not fall apart.”
However, the president announced that the government of Nigeria and Ghana will rebuild the Akpakaogwe Primary school Ogidi where Achebe attended.
The primary school had been in a sorry state before now and nobody had been able to fix it.
Meanwhile, Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi and his Abia counterpart, Chief Theodore Orji, were locked out during the church service for the literary icon.
Also locked out were the clergymen who had come to conduct the funeral service. They were reportedly locked out by security men attached to President Jonathan’s convoy.
Angered by the actions of the security men, the Anglican, Archbishop of Aba province, Rt. Rev Ikechukwu Nwosu, while delivering his sermon, said politicians should caution their aides at any function.
“If these priests are not here, Achebe will not be buried. The security men broke the rule of order of service by locking the bishops outside. Without the men of God, everybody will be seated here doing nothing.
“Not only that the priest were locked out, the host governor, Mr. Peter Obi and the Abia State governor, Chief Theodore Orji were equally prevented from coming inside the church. That is not the way to do things,” Nwosu warned
Many of the dignitaries that attended the church service including journalists were subjected to series of checks and pushing by the security operatives before the church service.
Obi and Orji were seen being pushed around by the security operatives suspected to be with the president as the number of people outside the church outnumbered those inside.
In his sermon, Nwosu, who represented the Anglican primate Rt. Rev Nicholas Okoh, identified Achebe with three things “as parable to the Nigerian Nation, his foundational upbringing and his social actions.
The priest read from the book of Matthew, chapter 3 and 34 respectively.
