The Anambra State government has condoled with the family of Dr Arthur
Agwuncha Nwankwo over the death of their patriarch.
Dr Nwankwo, 77, died on Saturday at the University of Nigeria Teaching
Hospital, Ituku Ozala, Enugu State, after a brief illness.
In a statement in Awka on Sunday, the Anambra State Commissioner for
Information, Mr C. Don Adinuba, described Dr Nwankwo’s passage as at
once painful and glorious.
“Painful because Nwankwo was one of the few people in the world who
should never die”, Commissioner Adinuba stated.
“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 Fourth Dimension. And through Fourth Dimension, many
academics attained the professorial rank in the universities.
“The Anambra State government recognizes 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”.
Reacting also to his demise, the President, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Anambra
State Chapter, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, described Nwankwo as a brave
man who in his lifetime stood firm for the Igbo nation.
He said: “It is a great loss to the Igbo nation. He was courageous. He
was a man who stood up for whatever that is Igbo, highly principled and
a courageous patriot.
“It is very unfortunate that we should lose such a man at a time the
Igbo nation is looking for elders that will put Igbo in the right
perspective.
“Arthur was a fighter, a very brave man in the likes of Gani Fawehinmi.
A man that did not care whose ox is gored when he is pushing a just
cause. Irrespective of his relationship even with the military, Arthur
always stood out. He established a newspaper called ‘Outlook’… The
paper stood out as the voice of the Igbo nation. Is a pity we lost him.”