Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has said that despite her support for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi who is an Igbo man like her, there are many other Igbo men she can never vote for if they contest the Nigeria’s presidency.
She stated this during a chat with Arise TV concerning her recent letter to the United States’ President, Joe Biden, challenging the conduct of the 2023 presidential election that saw the emergence of the ruling All Progressives Congress’ Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president-elect.
Some members of the APC have accused her of supporting her “tribesman,” describing the election as free and fair.
Chimamanda said she didn’t support Obi because he is an Igbo man, but because he demonstrated competence when he was Anambra state governor.
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She said, “Tribesman is just an outdated and strange expression, which I think says something about whoever is using it. I think that kind of accusation is a practice of what psychologists call protecting, which means you’re doing something and you accuse someone else of doing it, even though they’re not.
“I did not support Peter Obi because he’s an Igbo as I am. I am a person who doesn’t take positions lightly. And so, while I very much admire Peter Obi, respect him, there are many Igbo men who I admire and respect and would never vote for them as president.
“And so my support for Peter Obi is actually rooted in real things. It’s rooted in my faith in his ability.”
She also said President Muhammadu Buhari and Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, blew their chances of becoming the new heroes of Nigeria’s democracy.
She said, “Many Nigerians feel deeply cheated by INEC, deeply disenfranchised by INEC, and that is authoritarianism which obviously is the basis of fascism at the centre of manipulating an election because what you’re doing is that you’re gagging people, you’re forcibly taking away their voice.
“I think that Prof Yakubu had an opportunity for heroism. I think he wasted it spectacularly. Because he could very easily have become the hero of not just Nigerians but Africa because so many Africans were watching and they were so inspired by what happened before this election and by the ‘obidient’ movement.
“I also think that President Buhari missed an opportunity for heroism, maybe his last chance at heroism, because Nigerians felt before the elections that he meant well and meant to support credible elections. I don’t think many Nigerians think that now.”
