Indeed there was a country by Funke OsaeBrown

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FUNKE OSAE-BROWNI have tried so much in the past few weeks to get a copy of Chinua Achebe’s troublesome book, ‘There was a country’. I decided to call it troublesome because it has generated a lot of debate and uproar among a select few who have failed to see reasons with him. I was finally able to get my copy from Glendora last Saturday at the launch of Seffi Atta’s new book, ‘a bit of a difference.’

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It is expected whenever Achebe decides to write a book of this magnitude, it must generate some kind of controversy. I could remember discussing with one of my lecturers at the University of Lagos in M.A class while I was writing my dissertation on the impact of the Nigerian Civil war on women why Achebe has not written any significant essay on his personal account of the Civil War. I never knew 2012 will birth such a great work from a very brilliant mind.

Whenever I pick up the book to read each day, I could not help but wonder why the Awolowo story, which for me is not a significant portion of the book, will generate such a great controversy.  There are so many things I find fascinating about the book. Some of which I will share with you, dear readers as the days go by.

As a literature student, one of the famous lines of Achebe I was taught in the classroom where:  “An Igbo proverb tells us that a man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body.” As I write, this I can picture vividly in mind when Oyedele of blessed memory, one of my literature teachers said these words when he was teaching us about the African Novel.

It’s not surprising that Achebe opens his latest book, ‘There Was a Country’ with this proverb. These lines sum up our trajectory as a people and a nation. They are eternal truths and we have not learnt our lessons from these words of wisdom.

Like he said, the rain that began beating Africa began some four to five hundred years ago while the one that started beating Nigeria began about a hundred years ago after the amalgamation which birth the country Nigeria. By 2014, it will be a hundred years of amalgamation. Yet we have not learnt our lessons from our mistakes. We are still neck deep in tyranny, ethnic rivalry, greed, bad leadership and discrimination. The seeds of discord sown by the colonisers are still multiplying in out country.

Some of those who are criticising Achebe’s thoughts in his book have failed to see the optimism expressed by everyone as Nigeria gained independence at the turn of the 21st century. They failed to acknowledge a country that held so much promise. They did not see the beauty of a Nigeria where Achebe had a choice for a job interview to be done in his home. The interviewers had to travel several kilometres to Achebe’s village to interview for a vacant position. Before Achebe left University, he had gotten a job. Then broadcasting job was well paying. He was owned salaries for months like most media houses do today. He was able to rise up quickly the broadcasting ladder to head what is today known as the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Today to climb that kind of ladder, it will take you years and you have to learn to play the politics in the work place.

There are no jobs today and even the few ones you don’t have that luxury of being interviewed in your own house.  These are issues that should be dealt with and not some issues about Awolowo.

It is important we go back to the drawing board, our past, and know where the rain began to beat us. We have stayed long enough in the rain. The way forward is bringing alive that optimism of a greater and better Nigeria there was before independence.

Babatunde Akinsola
Babatunde Akinsolahttps://naija247news.com
Babatunde Akinsola is aNaija247news' Southwest editor. He's based in Lagos and writes on the Yoruba Nation political issues, news and investigative reports

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