President Bola Tinubu has approved the naming of the M18 road infrastructure in Guzape District, Abuja after renowned novelist, Chinua Achebe.
In a post on Saturday, the Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, Mr. Olusegun Dada wrote: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Commissions the M18 road infrastructure in Guzape District of Abuja. Names road after Nigerian Novelist and Poet, late Prof. Chinua Achebe”.
Reputed as a central figure of modern African literature, Achebe’s first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart, occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel.
A social critic, his notable works included No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God, which together with Things Fall Apart, forms the African Trilogy. His works also included A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah.
In the Western world, Achebe is often referred to as the “father of African literature”, although he vigorously rejected the characterisation.
He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s, and returned to that countru in 1990 after a car crash left him partially paralysed. He stayed in the US in a 19-year tenure at Bard College as a Professor of Languages and Literature.
Achebe died on 21 March 2013, aged 82.
