ACHEBE'S BOOK CAUSES A STIR

Professor Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe’s depiction of Chief Obafemi Awolowo as a man driven by an overriding ambition for power at the expense of Ibos has been described as nonsensical and a twist of facts, In a rebuttal of Achebe’s representation of Awolowo in a new book, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, a close aide and follower of the late Yoruba sage, noted that Achebe has a penchant to soil the image of Awolowo.

Babatope told Masquerade234 that the battle to check Achebe had just started, adding that event though Achebe had the liberty to write he should not murder history with his attack on Awolowo. Achebe in the new book ( There was a country: A personal history of Biafra) soon to be released this month had accused Awolowo of being driven by an ambition for power which “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.”
Babatope however stated that Nigerians should expect detailed, honest, factual and objective replies to what achebe wrote.
he emphasized that this is not the first time Achebe will publish scathing attacks on Awolowo, stressing that he did it in his book written about 30yrs ago titled ‘The trouble with Nigeria’. The battle against falsehood has started.”