United Nigeria Airlines Endows Achebe Fiction Prize With N20M
United Nigeria Airlines has endowed the prestigious annual Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction, administered by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) to the tune of N20 million for 10 years.
A Statement made available to journalists on Monday said the sponsorship deal was announced by Chief Obiora Okonkwo, its Executive Chairman during a discussion with the ANA president, Dr Usman Akanbi.
The Statement which was signed by Chinelo Obogo, the Head of Corporate Communications of UNA said under the arrangement, the airline would provide N2 million every year for the next 10 years as a commitment to guarantee the competition prize for the period.
It said the award was initiated by the Anambra government in 2021 in conjunction with the ANA leadership and has faced financial constraints in the last three years following the failure of the present state administration to continue its sponsorship.
”Though the Gov. Willie Obiano administration began the sponsorship with one million naira, the Prof. Chukwuma Soludo’s administration 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 say the state government appears to have lost interest in continuing with the sponsorship despite several letters reminding it of its promise,” it said.
The Statement said the apparent lack of commitment informed the Intervention by United Nigeria Airlines rescue the prize from uncertainty.
It quoted the representative of the CEO, Dr Akanbi as saying that Prof Achebe was too precious in their consciousness for the award to continue to suffer the current epileptic funding.”
“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,” it said.
Reacting to the sponsorship, the ANA president said they were Okonkwo and his airline for their patriotic intervention.
The President who us a senior academic at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State said UNA CEO was not just a world-class raconteur and essayist, but also the ANA founder who started the association in 1981 at the University of Nigeria at Nsukka.
“He accepted to serve as its first president and gave the association the credibility and platform that has made the ANA highly respected beyond Nigeria’s shores,” he said.
Recall that in June this year, United Nigeria Airlines named one of the two new Boeing 737-800NG aircraft after the late author and the other after Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha as part of the company’s determination to uphold their values.
