AWKA – Outgoing Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano and incoming governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, have hailed Dr. Chidi Achebe, second son of Chinua Achebe, Africa’s greatest novelist and essayist, for winning the 2022 prestigious John and Samuel Bard Award in the United States for excellence in medicine and science.
In a statement issued by the Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. C. Don Adinuba, both outgoing Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano and incoming Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo have felicitated with the younger Achebe on this feat, with the two leaders expressing delight at the honour to Dr. Achebe, on hearing the news late yesterday.
”This is a parting gift to me and the Anambra people as I am about to depart office after eight years of giving my best to a great state.
“Professor Chinua Achebe remains a very great man even in the grave, and it is reassuring that his children like Chidi, a medical doctor who trained in some of the best institutions in the world, is steeped in the tradition of global excellence,” Adinuba quoted Governor Obiano as saying.
Professor Soludo described Dr. Achebe, CEO of African Integrated Development Enterprise (AIDE), as a worthy ambassador of Anambra State, whose passion for Africa’s rapid development “is reminiscent of his father’s lifelong commitment to Africa’s emancipation.”
Soludo, who will assume office tomorrow, Thursday, March 17, 2022, as Obiano’s successor, observed that despite living abroad for decades, “the younger Achebe is acutely conscious of his roots and belongs to an ever increasing number of Anambra indigenes keenly interested in contributing actively to a new dawn in our beloved State.”
