United Nigeria Airlines has pledged N20 million to the Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction, committing N2 million each year to the Association of Nigerian Authors for the next 10 years.
The commitment was announced on Tuesday by the airline's Executive Chairman, Prof Obiora Okonkwo, after discussions with ANA President, Dr Usman Akanbi.
The prize, established in 2021 by the Anambra State Government in partnership with the Association of Nigerian Authors, bears the name of a writer whose work changed the place of African literature in the world.
For Okonkwo, that alone makes its preservation worth the commitment.
“Prof Achebe is too precious in our consciousness for the award to continue to suffer the current epileptic funding,” he said.
He said Achebe's influence extended well beyond his novels and essays, pointing to his lectures, speeches, intellectual activism, ethical conduct and interventions in public affairs.
“Very few men and women of letters and culture in recent history have brought as much attention and honour to the black race and the African world as the great Achebe through his writings, lectures, speeches, intellectual activism, ethical conduct, and intermittent interventions in political affairs which has made him an authentic conscience of the Nigerian people,” Okonkwo said.
Akanbi described the airline's intervention as patriotic and said it would help protect an important part of Nigeria's literary heritage.
“We are immensely grateful to Prof. Okonkwo and his airline for their patriotic intervention,” he said.
Achebe's place in the history of ANA is equally significant. He founded the Association of Nigerian Authors in 1981 at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and became its first president.
Akanbi recalled that the late writer was not only a world-class raconteur and essayist but also the person who gave the association its early institutional foundation.
“Prof was not just a world-class raconteur and essayist, but also the ANA founder who started our association in 1981 at the University of Nigeria at Nsukka and accepted to serve as its first president, thus giving it the credibility and platform that has made the association highly respected beyond Nigeria's shores,” he said.
The sponsorship is not UNA's first gesture in honour of Achebe. In June, the airline named one of its newly acquired Boeing 737-800NG aircraft after the literary icon. The other aircraft was named after the Obi of Onitsha, Nnaemeka Achebe.
The new 10-year commitment brings the airline's support for the Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction into a long-term arrangement, ensuring that the award can continue to recognise writers under the name of a Nigerian whose work remains a defining part of African literature.
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