Dike Onwuamaeze
The United Nigeria Airlines has pledged to sponsor the prestigious annual “Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction,” for 10 years.
The prize is administered by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), which said the airline’s commitment would guarantee the continuation of the prize.
The sponsorship deal was disclosed yesterday by the Executive Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Professor Obiora Okonkwo, following a discussion with President of ANA, Dr. Usman Akanbi.
Under the arrangement, the airline will provide N2 million every year for the next 10 years to ANA, which would bring the total sponsorship to N20 million.
The yearly award, which was initiated by the Anambra State Government in 2021 in conjunction with the ANA leadership, has faced financial constraints in the last three years following the failure of Anambra State Government to continue its sponsorship.
Governor Willie Obiano’s administration began the sponsorship with N1 million while the incumbent governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, in 2022 continued the sponsorship and agreed to ANA’s request to double amount 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 letters reminding it of its promise.
The apparent lack of commitment caused United Nigeria Airlines to intervene and rescue the prize from uncertainty.
According to Akanbi, “Professor Achebe is too precious in our consciousness for the award to continue to suffer the current epileptic funding.”
Speaking on why the airline made the decision to take over the sponsorship, Okonkwo said that Achebe’s legacy demands this level of commitment.
He said: “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.”
Reacting to the sponsorship, the president of ANA said: “We are immensely grateful to Professor Okonkwo and his airline for their patriotic intervention.
“Professor Achebe 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, 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.”
Akanbi, who is a senior academic at the University of Ilorin in Kwara State, also highlighted Okonkwo’s consistent record of honouring Achebe,’s legacy.
He recalled that Okonkwo was solely responsible for financing the erection of a statue of the late Professor Achebe which was unveiled in July by Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State at the Ugwunwasike Roundabout in Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area.
Ogidi is Achebe’s own hometown.
The prize sponsorship is the latest effort made by Okonkwo and the United Nigeria Airlines to cement Achebe’s legacy.
In June, one of the two Boeing 737-800NG aircraft purchased by United Nigeria Airlines was named after the late author of Things Fall Apart, while the other aircraft was named after His Royal Majesty, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha.