Chinua Achebe
The final homeward journey for Nigeria’s late literary icon, Prof Chinua Achebe, who died in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States of America, on March 22, began Tuesday with the arrival of his remains at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
His body was brought in aboard a British Airways flight at exactly 4.45 am into the waiting arms of his family who kept vigil at the local wing of the airport.
The atmosphere at the domestic wing of the airport where the casket was draped in the national colours of green-white-green, was quiet and solemn.
Government officials were nowhere to be found, until around 7.00 am, when the Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, and a few officiating priests from the Anglican Diocese, Onitsha surfaced.
Except for Achebe’s large portrait that adorned the reception hall of the domestic wing of the airport, the day would have been just like any other. The entire ceremony at the airport took less than an hour.
Other top government functionaries that were at the airport included the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo; former Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Chibudom Odom; and former Ambassador, Mrs. Judith Attah Okigbo.
The widow, children and grandchildren who were all clad in black attire all wore pensive looks and refused to speak to the press.
However, Achebe’s immediate constituency, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), were on hand to offer their last respects for one of their own.
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