Achebe’s family and friends accused wife and children of selling Achebe 's corpse to FGN

Achebe’s family under fire for handing over late writer’s
burial rites to govt

It is three days today before the remains of foremost novelist, Chinua Achebe, arrives Nigeria for a five-day burial rite that would culminate in his interment on Thursday, May 23, at his family compound in Ogidi,
Anambra State. But as organizers put finishing touches to the burial
arrangement, a serious controversy has blown open over the decision of the late writer’s family to hand over the
programme to the Nigerian federal government as well as those of Anambra and other states in the South-east geopolitical zone. In the last one week, Atlantic News Nigerian has learnt  from some of Mr. Achebe’s family members, contemporaries, associates, friends and fans accusing the late writer’s wife, Christie and her children, of surrendering Mr. Achebe’s corpse to the government for pecuniary gains. The family wouldn’t comment on the allegations. While alive, Mr. Achebe, who died on March 22 at 82, was a consistent and vociferous critic of the Nigerian federal and state governments who he repeatedly accused of monumental corruption, ineptitude and misgovernment. In protest against the way Nigeria is run, the revered novelist, in 2004 and 2011, rejected national honours awarded him by the federal government. But the federal and state governments that Mr. Achebe criticized and kept at bay while alive have now been handed leading roles in the burial of the globally acclaimed novelist, a development that has irked not a few family members, contemporaries, fans and associates. “Prof was a simple man who deliberately rejected affiliation
with the Nigerian government,” lamented an Achebe family member who pleaded not to be named for fear of being ostracized by the late writer’s family. “It is now shocking and nauseating that his wife and children have now sold his corpse to the same destructive forces he opposed till death.” She added, “We are trying to understand why they are trying to destroy his legacy when the man actually left more than
enough wealth to be given a befitting burial without any government getting involved. Why don’t they want to spend the man’s money to give him a befitting burial?” Checks by this newspaper revealed that the federal and Anambra state government are handling almost all aspects of the burial. The federal government has constituted a Chinua Achebe Transition Committee, led by Professor T. Uzodinma Nwala, to handle logistics for the burial. The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has also been detailed to arrange accommodation, transportation and security for all guests expected at the burial. In fact, a document seen by one of our sources listed Mr. Achebe’s wife and children among guests being expected at the burial, suggesting that they were being invited to their own patriarch’s interment.
A programme drawn up by the Professor Nwala’s committee showed that Mr. Achebe’s remains would, on May 21, be received at the airport in Abuja by Nigerian politicians and political office holders, some of whom the writer considered corrupt and inept while alive. The novelist will also be treated to a reception at the National Assembly, populated mainly by elements Mr. Achebe believed were holding Nigeria down.
“We can’t understand why Achebe’s wife and kids are taking steps that are contrary to what the good man stood for,” a contemporary of the late writer said via telephone from the United States. “They are doing the opposite of what their father would do.” He requested not to be named for fear he might be accused of trying to derail his friend’s burial. Olu Oguibe, a Professor of Art and African-American Studies at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and family friend of the Achebes, has been especially vociferous in his criticism of the late writer’s family. “To the best of the knowledge of many who were close to him, his views and opinion of the Nigerian government and that of his state which he so clearly protested in 2004 and 2011 had not changed,” Mr. Oguibe said in an April 29 post on his Facebook page that stirred extensive discussion. “ So, what does it mean that in death, the very same government that this great philosopher and patriot so strongly and unequivocally disapproved of has been given free rein to organize his last rites.”