(May 4, 2001; Bard College, New York): The attainment of the biblical three-score-and-ten years by Professor Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike should be an occasion for national celebration. It should be an opportunity for a grateful nation to record its appreciation for the work of a great public servant who is also a profoundly important literary artist.

I have known Chukwuemeka Ike since our teenage years first as a contemporary at Government College, Umuahia and then at University College, Ibadan; and I regard this long acquaintance which matured into close friendship as one of the rich blessings of my life. But more to the point, it gives me the authority to reflect on this man who is in reality a most uncommon phenomenon.

Ike began his working life as Assistant Registrar at Ibadan. His choice of university administration in the crucial 1950s decade when Nigeria was embarking on a vast and explosive educational expansion was right for the times and right for his own temperament and aptitude. Before too long, the new University of Nigeria at Nsukka which had been founded in the year of Nigeria's independence was looking for a Registrar and appointed Ike to that position.

He held it through the years leading to the Civil War (1967-1970), the war years themselves, and their aftermath. From this point onward Ike's career movement was from pinnacle to pinnacle. He was appointed to head the restoration and re-opening of the university that had been severely damaged during the Civil War. Then came the prize appointment for him as Registrar of the West African Examinations Council, a prestigious position which ensured that a whole generation of secondary school leavers in former British colonies in West Africa carried the imprimatur of Chukwuemeka Ike's signature on their certificate.

Ike's achievements in Nigerian and West African higher education are more than adequate to place any single individual in his nation's hall of fame and his nation in his debt. To add to this Ike's important contribution to Nigerian and African literature puts him on another level altogether - in a class by himself. His novels chronicle in memorable fashion the lives, the hopes, the despair of Nigerians. In his fine satire of Nigerian academia, Naked Gods, Ike achieves brilliant observation, light hearted humour and sombre seriousness. And that combination of light touch and serious purpose is the hallmark of his entire oeuvre. He explores our human condition in terms we can all understand and in images that will endure.

Let us raise a toast to this great Nigerian!
•Prof. Achebe, the most translated writer of African heritage and the developing world, is the author of Things Fall Apart (1958); No Longer at Ease (1960), and Arrow of God (1964--rev. 1974), Anthills of the Savannah (1987), Home and Exile (2000) and numerous essays on the sociology of African life and literature. He is a resident scholar at Bard College, New York, and recipient of numerous awards for scholarship.

TRIBUTE Chinua Achebe: The Voice of Ancient and Modern Africa. Achebe, scholar, social conscience, cultural historian and globally-acclaimed writer, has been a significant and binding source for an engaging understanding of African pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial history and realities. I believe that such insight has made him a favorite of African-Americans, and other scholars and regular folks in search of a better, realistic understanding of Africa, at least, from Achebe's utilization of his rich and dynamic Igbo ancestry, in south eastern Nigeria. I share the same ancestry, and he's one of my mentors. By Chido Nwangwu

Why Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa's writer of the century. By Chido Nwangwu Creative writing, publishing and the future of Nigerian Literature. By Prof. Chukwuemeka Ike A trial of two cities and struggle for justice. By Jack E. White, Time magazine columnist for USAfricaonline.com Johnnie Cochran will soon learn that defending Abacha's loot is not as simple as his O.J Simpson's case. CONTINENTAL AGENDA Bush's position on Africa is "ill-advised." The position stated by Republican presidential aspirant and Governor of Texas, George Bush where he said that "Africa will not be an area of priority" in his presidency has been questioned by USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido Nwangwu. He added that Bush's "pre-election position was neither validated by the economic exchanges nor geo-strategic interests of our two continents." These views were stated during an interview CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw and senior analyst Jeff Greenfield had with Mr. Nwangwu on Saturday November 18, 2000 during a special edition of 'Inside Politics 2000.' Nwangwu, adviser to the Mayor of Houston (the 4th largest city in the U.S., and immigrant home to thousands of Africans) argued further that "the issues of the heritage interests of 35 million African-Americans in Africa, the volume and value of oil business between between the U.S and Nigeria and the horrendous AIDS crisis in Africa do not lend any basis for Governor Bush's ill-advised position which removes Africa from fair consideration" were he to be elected president. By Alverna Johnson Letters: African perspectives to U.S. elections on CNN Church bombed in Sudan: How 3 American missionaries miraculously escaped death. USAfricaonline.com Special and Exclusive report by Elise Glading ELECTIONS Gigolos on the Campaign Trail. By Prof. Walt Brasch

USAfricaonline.com has been listed among the world's leading web sites by the international newspaper, USAToday. DEMOCRACY'S WARRIOR Out of Africa. …The cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household but his voice is the property of the neighborhood. -- Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah. An editor carries on his crusade against public corruption and press censorship in his native Nigeria and other African countries. By John Suval. STEALS AND DEALS: How Marc Rich made billions from Nigeria's Oil. Through an elaborate network of carrots and sticks and a willing army of Nigeria's soldiers and some civilians, controversial global dealer and billionaire Marc Rich, literally and practically, made deals and steals; yes, laughed his way to the banks from crude oil contracts, unpaid millions in oil royalties and false declarations of quantities of crude lifted and exported from Nigeria for almost 25 years. Worse, he lifted Nigeria's oil and shipped same to then embargoed apartheid regime in South Africa. Should Africa debates begin and end at The New York Times and The Washington Post? Nigeria at 40: punish financial thuggery, build domestic infrastructure Nelson Mandela, Tribute to the world's political superstar and Lion of Africa   Martin Luther King's legacy, Jews and Black History Month Ethnic Cleansing and slaughter in the Sudan by Dawud Ibrahim Salih, Muhammad Adam Yahya, Abdul Hafiz Omar Sharief and Osman Abbakorah, representatives of the Massaleit community in exile, Cairo, Egypt Why International community should note the old military dictator in Obasanjo is abusing human rights of Igbos, others in Nigeria. By Egbebelu Ugobelu Okigwe killings: A possible prelude to a pogrom? by Dr. M. O. Ene