President Bola Tinubu has given authorization for the designation of the M18 road infrastructure in Guzape District, Abuja to be named in honour of world acclaimed novelist and literary icon, late Prof Chinua Achebe.
The President made this statement during his speech at the opening ceremony of the road in Abuja on Saturday, June 8th.
This was contained in a social media post by Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Social Media, Olusegun Dada.
He wrote: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Commissions the M18 road infrastructure in Guzape District of Abuja. Names road after Nigerian Novelist and Poet, late Professor Chinua Achebe.”
The New Diplomat reports that Achebe was born on 16 November 1930 and passed away on 21 March 2013.
Born in Ogidi, in then Colonial Nigeria, Achebe’s childhood was influenced by both Igbo traditional culture and postcolonial Christianity. He excelled in school and attended what is now the University of Ibadan, where he became fiercely critical of how Western literature depicted Africa. Moving to Lagos after graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and garnered international attention for his 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, amongst others.
In fact, in virtually all literary circles across the world, Achebe is regarded as The Father of African Literature. He was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the central figure of modern African literature. His novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel till date.
The move is seen as a step towards dousing tension amongst writers and in the Nigerian literary community. Recall that Tinubu had earlier named a road after Nobel Laureate, Poet and critic, Prof Wole Soyinka.
