Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has expressed sadness over the death of Nigeria’s literary icon, Prof. Isidore Okpewho, describing his passage as a monumental loss to the country and the literary world.
The governor in a tribute and condolence message signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu, extolled the immense contributions of the late writer to the growth and development of literature in Nigeria, Africa and beyond.
He said his literary works promoted Delta State, Nigeria and Africa, hence he would be celebrated by all lovers of literature all over the world.
Okowa described Okpewho, winner of the 1976 African Arts Prize for Literature, 1993 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in Africa, and a 2010 winner of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) in the humanities as a consummate patriot, a great literary icon, a teacher par excellence.
The governor said: “On behalf of the government and people of Delta State, I commiserate with the Isidore Okpewho family and the entire literary world over the demise of the late cerebral writer of “The Last Duty” fame.
“We have lost a great man whose contributions to the literary world can best be described as legendary. “He will be sorely missed by all and sundry whose lives he affected in many ways with his literary arsenal. I therefore urge all who mourn the demise of the Okpewho to take solace in the fact that he remains alive through his literary works.”
He prayed God to grant his immediate family the strength to bear the irreparable loss, pointing out that his achievements in different areas of national life will always be remembered.
