Chinua Achebe by A Man of the People

Author:A Man of the People
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2016-03-19T23:00:00+00:00

Don't be funny, Odili.'

'I am not being funny,' I said hotly, perhaps more hotly than was called for.

I knew very well and needed no reminder that we were not in Britain or something, that when a man resigned in our country it was invariably with an eye on the main chance---as when a few years ago ten newly elected P. A. P. Members of Parliament had switched parties at the opening of the session and given the P. O. P. a comfortable majority overnight in return for ministerial appointments and---if one believed the rumours---a little cash prize each as well. All that was well known, but I would have thought it was better to start our new party clean, with a different kind of philosophy.

'I know how you feel,' said Max rather patronizingly. 'I felt like that at first. But we must face certain facts. You take a man like Nanga now on a salary of four thousand plus all the---you know. You know what his salary was as an elementary school teacher? Perhaps not more than eight pounds a month. Now do you expect a man like that to resign on a little matter of principle...?'

'Assuming, that is, that he can recognize principle when he sees it,' I added somewhat pompously.

'Well, exactly. I am not saying, mark you, that our man is like Nanga. He is a true nationalist and would not hesitate to resign if he felt it was really necessary. But as he himself points out, do we commit suicide every day we feel unhappy with the state of the world?'

'It's hardly the same thing,' I said.

'Well, I know. But having a man like him right in the Government is very essential, I can assure you. He tells me all that goes on.'

'In that sense I suppose you are right. As the saying goes it is only when you are close to a man that you can begin to smell his breath.'

'Well, exactly.'

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