Achebe Prize for Fiction gets N20m lifeline

By Henry Akubuiro

After what looked like a hiatus, the Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction will be awarded consistently from the 2027 ANA Prizes circle. One of Nigeria’s leading airlines, United Nigeria Airlines, has pledged N20 million to sponsor the prestigious annual fiction prize, administered by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), for the next 10 years.

‎The sponsorship deal was disclosed by the executive chairman of the airline, Professor Obiora Okonkwo, following a discussion with the ANA president, Dr. Usman Akanbi.

Under the arrangement, the airline will provide N2 million every year for the next 10 years to ANA, bringing the total sponsorship to N20 million, a commitment the association said would guarantee the continuation of the prize, regardless of the change in the state government.

‎Prof. Okonkwo said that Achebe’s legacy demanded his company’s intervention: “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.”

He restated that “Prof Achebe is too precious in our consciousness for the award to continue to suffer the current epileptic funding.”

‎The yearly award, which was initiated by the Anambra State government in 2021, in conjunction with the ANA leadership, had faced financial constraints in the last three years, following the failure of the present state administration to continue its sponsorship.

Though the Governor Willie Obiano administration began the sponsorship with one million naira, the Governor Chukwuma Soludo administration that succeeded it in 2022 continued the sponsorship and agreed to ANA’s request to double it in consideration of inflation and administrative costs, like payments to judges.

However, after two years, the organisers said the state government appeared to have lost interest in continuing with the sponsorship, despite several reminders.

Reacting to the new sponsorhip deal, the ANA president, a senior academic at the University of Ilorin in Kwara State, thanked Prof. Okonkwo and his airline for their patriotic intervention.

He also remanded all: “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 stated that Okonkwo had onsistently honoured Achebe at different times to preserve the late author’s legacy, including financing the statue of the late Prof. Achebe which, was recently unveiled at the Ugwunwasike Roundabout in Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area, Achebe’s own hometown.

Also, in June, one of the two Boeing 737-800NG aircraft purchased by United Nigeria Airlines was named after the late author, while the other was named after His Royal Majesty, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha.