Pleased with the enormous volume of creative works produced during the life time of the internationally respected novelist Professor Chinua Achebe which have advanced the promotion and protection of the human rights of Nigerians and other citizens of the World, HUMAN RIGHTS WITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] has named the late World acclaimed writer Professor Chinua Acebe as the greatest human rights icon of all times and will consequently induct him in the national human rights hall of fame of the body.
In a statement jointly authorized by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] has also called on the National Commission for Museum and Moment and the Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism to secure the country home of the late literary legend in Ogidi, Anambra state and declare it as a national monument as a way of immortalizing the monumental body of intellectual and cultural achievements made by the late Professor Chinua Achebe just as the rights group said the declaration of the personal estate of the late legend would be another way of preserving the edifice for generations yet unborn to appreciate the gift of such an enormously talented Nigerian writer who put Nigeria on the World’s positive intellectual stage.
The media focused Non-Governmental organization which plans to stage a national human rights lecture in Abuja in the coming months to honour the memory of the late literary legend, also urged the Federal Ministry of Education to implement the translation of Chinua Achebe’s greatest work ‘Things Fall Apart’ into the major languages of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba and distribute the books freely to all Nigerian secondary schools as one way of restoring the lost glory of Nigeria’s national reading culture and to academically empower the youth to pass their ordinary level English and English literature subjects with ease.
HURIWA also condemned what it called the hypocritical shedding of crocodile tears over the passage of Professor Achebe by the country’s political leadership which over the years perpetrated grandscale corruption and economic crimes which led to the car accident that physically incapacitated the late Professor Achebe thereby necessitating his self exile to the United States of America where he sought and received the best of healthcare that sustained him several years after the fatal car crash in the badly maintained federal road in Nigeria.
HURIWA stated thus; “While we mourn the passage of Nigeria’s greatest intellectual and writer of international repute, we have decided to honour his memory by recognizing him officially as the greatest human rights icon and we will complete the process by inducting him into our national human rights hall of fame and host it on our website @www.huriwa.org forever as a way of reminding Nigerians that this great writer used his creative talents to produce works of literature and novels that tell the Nigerian and African authentic story and also vigorously campaigned for the fundamental human rights of all Nigerians to be respected, promoted and protected”.
“We hereby urge the Federal Ministry of Culture and tourism and the National Commission for Museum and Monument to declare the Ogidi country home of Professor Chinua Achebe as a national heritage/monument whereby tourists from all parts of the World could be given access to appreciate the place whereby the international writer and novelist grew up from a very humble background”, HURIWA stated.