Buhari, Obiano mourn, condole NADECO chieftain, Arthur Nwankwo’s family

President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with the government and people of Anambra State over the death of a prolific writer and former Vice Chairman of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Dr Arthur Nwankwo.

The president, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, in Abuja on Sunday, noted that the labour and sacrifices of the late nationalist would always be remembered by posterity.

While commiserating with family and friends as well as professional and political associates of Nwankwo, he urged them to find solace in the late writer’s contributions to national and global development by consistently pursuing and projecting values of peace, unity and love.

According to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Buhari affirmed that Nwankwo’s bridge-building efforts, like supporting the famous ‘Handshake Across the Niger’ and carefully picking the themes of his many publications to reflect national unity, while advocating for a collective vision, had served the purpose.

According to him, the late NADECO chieftain’s investments in humanity will endure, especially standing for democracy and development at great risks and working hard to ensure that the pivotal institutions are strengthened and sustained.

He prayed to God to receive the soul of the departed statesman and comfort his family.

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Meanwhile, the Anambra State government also condoled with the family of Dr Arthur Nwankwo over the death of their patriarch.

Dr Nwankwo, 77, died on Saturday at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, (UNTH) Enugu, after a brief illness.

In a statement in Awka the Anambra State capital, on Sunday, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Don Adinuba, described Dr Nwankwo’s death as painful and glorious.

His words: “Painful because Nwankwo was one of the few people in the world who should never die. Glorious because he was able to achieve so much for not just his country but also humanity.

“He was a most accomplished publisher, poet, novelist, historian, political scientist, pan Africanist, activist and fighter for justice.

“Worried about the dearth of indigenous publishing firms in Africa in the early 1970s, Dr Nwankwo, together with Dr Sam Ifejika, with whom he co-authored a popular book on the Nigerian Civil War in 1969, established a firm named Nwamife Publishers Ltd in Enugu, which published not only books on the war but also works by such scintillating scholars as Professor Ben Nwabueze, Africa’s most influential scholar of constitutional law.

“With Dr Ifejika’s relocation to Canada, Dr Nwankwo started his own personal firm, Fourth Dimension Publishers, also in Enugu, in the late 1980s.

“Fourth Dimension published almost two thousand highly respected books in various genres, ranging from fiction to literary criticism to history to religion to philosophy to political science to sociology to poetry to physical and biological sciences to autobiography to law and so on.

“It was, indeed, a thing of honour for scholars around Africa to be published by the Fourth Dimension. And through Fourth Dimension, many academics attained the professorial rank in the universities.

“The Anambra State government recognises Dr Nwankwo as a foremost fighter for social justice.

“He returned to Nigeria from the United States after studies at Eastern Mennonite College in West Virginia and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, as the Nigerian political crisis was starting in the late 1960s. He could have returned to America or travelled elsewhere, but he chose to stay with his people with all the sufferings and deprivations and deaths of that era.

“He was at loggerheads with different governments which saw him incarcerated more than once. He was a natural member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) which saw him address critical audiences around the world on the Nigerian condition under the military dictatorship. He was to pay a price for all this.

“Dr Nwankwo was a statesman through and through. Governor Willie Obiano thanks the Nwankwo family for keeping in touch with his government in the last few weeks of their leader.

“We condole with the Nwankwo family of Ajalli in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State on the passage of this remarkable writer, publisher, social crusader and pan Africanist. May the Lord receive his soul.”