United Nigeria Airlines has pledged N20 million to sponsor the yearly Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction, administered by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) for the next 10 years.

The deal was disclosed by the executive chairman of the airline, Professor Obiora Okonkwo, following a discussion with the ANA president, Dr. Usman Akanbi.

Under the arrangement, the airline will provide N2 million every year for the next 10 years to ANA, bringing the total sponsorship to N20 million, a commitment the association says would guarantee the continuation of the prize regardless of the change in the state government.

The yearly award which was initiated by the Anambra State government in 2021 in conjunction with the ANA leadership, has faced financial constraints in the last three years following the failure of the state government to continue its sponsorship.

Though the Governor Willie Obiano administration began the sponsorship with one million naira, the Governor Chukwuma Soludo administration that succeeded it in 2022 continued the sponsorship and 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.

Announcing the airline’s decision to step in, Dr. Akanbi quoted Prof Okonkwo as saying: “Prof Achebe is too precious in our consciousness for the award to continue to suffer the current epileptic funding.”

Speaking on why the airline made the decision to take over the sponsorship, Prof. Okonkwo said that Achebe’s legacy demands this level of commitment.

“Very few men and women of letters and culture in recent history”, he stated, “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 in political affairs which has made him an authentic conscience of the Nigerian people.

Reacting to the sponsorship, the ANA president, who is a senior academic at the University of Ilorin in Kwara State said: “We are immensely grateful to Prof. Okonkwo and his airline for their patriotic intervention.”

Chinua Achebe was born in Eastern Nigeria in 1930. He went to the local public schools and was among the first students to graduate from the University of Ibadan.

After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio producer and Director of External Broadcasting, and it was during this period that he began his writing career.

Among the books he wrote were Things Fall Apart, 1958; No Longer at Ease, 1960; Arrow of God, 1964; A Man of the People, 1966; and Anthills of the Savannah, 1987. He also edited several anthologies, including the essay collections Morning Yet on Creation Day and Hopes and Impediments, and the collection of poetry Beware Soul Brother.

Meanwhile, the association has announced its 45th International Convention and Conference, scheduled to hold from Thursday, October 29, to Sunday, November 1, 2026, at the Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village,
Maitama Extension, Mpape, Abuja.

According to a statemeny by ANA President and chief host, Usman Ladipo Akanbi, the convention, themed “Literature, National Security, and the Place of Nigeria in the World,” will bring together writers, scholars, literary enthusiasts and other stakeholders from Nigeria and beyond for four days of intellectual engagement and literary activities.

According to Akanbi, the opening ceremony would be chaired by Dr. Bukar Usman, while Prof. Mahfouz Adedimeji would deliver the keynote address at the event.

The four-day convention will feature a range of activities, including speeches, literary performances, panel discussions, workshops and an awards dinner, among other programmes.

The ANA also disclosed that the convention was designed to provide a platform for meaningful discussions on the role of literature in addressing contemporary national and global challenges, particularly issues relating to security, identity and citizenship.

Furthermore, the association said the conference would examine Nigeria’s place in the world and encourage literary practitioners and other stakeholders to contribute to conversations on the country’s social and global realities.