Some Idols Are Forever: A Tribute To Prof. Chinua Achebe

[Shola Sholaz]

I learnt more than a lot from Ogbuefi Ugonabo, Professor Chinua Achebe. One of what I learnt  is the Igbo proverb, idols are made to be destroyed!
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When I encountered this proverb in one of the interviews he granted in the 1980s, I closed the newspaper with my index finger still in-between the pages I was reading, and sat back wistfully to absorb the immediate impact of that thunderbolt. I had heard Igbo proverbs spoken by the elders. I had also read Igbo proverbs, including the ones in his books. But I had neither heard nor read a proverb that enormous before. Its implications were like glints of stuff struck by a shaft of light. I knew that Igbo proverbs had categories, from light duty ones to super duty ones. But this one, no doubt, might be the greatest of the super duty proverbs I had yet encountered.
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"Idols are made to be destroyed" immediately gave me an explanation of an issue I had been struggling with. I had idols of which the good professor was the only one remaining at that point.
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For one reason or the other, at some point or the other, a couple of my other idols had disappointed me. And my disappointment stemmed from my discovery of certain major flaws in their respective persona. Nobody is perfect. Achebe himself was not.
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But the Igbos recognize that one could be flawed in the worst of spots. I had come to realize by their actions, and inactions for that matter, that my other idols were patriotic at the expense of their own endangered people. If one really paid attention, one could see that they paid more lip- service to their embattled people; that they were mainly interested in levying them with their individual ceremonial leadership. I tried as much as I could to deal with their outbound love, but I could not in the face of what was going on in the country.
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That sort of patriotism seemed strange, even in Nigeria. And frankly unacceptable to me. I was not happy with distrusting and distancing myself from such celebrities whom I had until then looked up to. I was even sure that I had a problem, and that I needed a shrink to straighten me up.

[Shola Sholaz]

[Folami David]

May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace is all I can say.

[Folami David]