can identify in the collection? What is the significance of the multiple approaches which
reconcile the past with the present? By engaging with issues bordering on diaspora, how
does he link them with exile as well as other similarly configured concepts like
cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism and nationalism; and how does he regard the question
of return within the discourse of exile?
The abundant evidence on the failure of the civilian political elite who were in the
forefront of anti-colonial struggle created a deep sense of disillusionment in the citizenry
both in Ghana and Nigeria. The situation became so critical that it rendered the citizenry
vulnerable in a desperate way for change in the status quo. However, the price to be paid
for the longing for change would become regrettably incommensurate to its gains in the
decades to follow. The military, understanding the psychology of each of the nations,
sought an opportune time and ousted the civilian elite. So when the soldiers took power
in Nigeria and Ghana respectively in 1966, the jubilation appeared to indicate the
fulfilment of a collective dream. It was just in character with the earlier prediction of
Achebe in A Man of the People.^14
The excitement of the people remains for me pathetically flawed. This is because the
take-over speeches of the military were carefully constructed in verbiage that once again
aroused the shattered spirit of oneness in the people.^15 It was for them a dawn of healing
14
Achebe in A Man of the People had predicted a coup at the end of the novel. Curiously, because of the
precision with which his narrative made the prediction, he was arrested on the allegation that he was part of
the plot, although he was later released, having not been found guilty.
(^15)
The military junta that executed the first 1966 coup in Nigeria put forward the divisionism in the various
regions of the country to take over power. Again, in the 1983 coup, to cite one other example from the
country, it was so easy for the junta to capitalize on the un-popularity of the Shagari administration to
present a speech that struck the right cord in the people and united them in support of the their intervention.
The speech read by the then Brigadier Sanni Abacha partly read: “you are living witnesses to the grave
economic predicament and uncertainty which an inept and corrupt leadership has imposed on our beloved
nation for the past four years... After due consultation over these deplorable conditions I and my
colleagues in the Armed Forces have, in the discharge of our national role as the promoters and protectors
of our national interest, decided to effect a change of leadership” (Patrick Utomi 1985:40). In Ghana the
situation was not different. The 1966 coup led by Col. E. K. Kotoka and Lt. General A.A. Afrifa did
everything to discredit the Nkrumah administration. For instance, in his speech to the nation, Lt. General
Ankra explained that in taking over power the military formation and the police force “acted in accord with
the oldest and most treasured tradition of the people of Ghana, the tradition that a leader who loses the
confidence and support of his people and resorts to the arbitrary use of power should be deposed. No one