Royal Father Wants Onitsha To Retain Traditional Values

The Obi of Onitsha, His Maj
esty Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, has expressed his desire for a modernised Onitsha that retained its cultural and traditional values.
Achebe said this when he addressed newsmen last Thursday at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, during the lunch of his book entitled: “Achebe, A Ten-Year Milestone”,  as part of activities marking his 73rd birthday.
The monarch said that during his first ten years on the throne, he had been preoccupied with ‘reinvention, re-engineering and refocusing’ of the ancient city of Onitsha in the new millennium.
He said, “My abiding determination is to transform Onitsha and in essence make it compliant with the 21st century without losing its traditional characteristics.  “Onitsha is first and foremost a native town, a hometown. God has also made it to be a large centre, a metropolis, for business, for education, for commerce and industries, a big city just like Lagos has been.
“We want to maintain that dual status of a modern city and also a hometown”.
He said the book, which was edited by Prof. Nkiru Nzegwu, was a reflection of his beliefs, perceptions, struggles, successes and temporary failures, which took him four years to put together.