By Samuel Egburonu, Editor

Globally celebrated Nigerian-born author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has explained why she wrote her recent letter that attacked the outcome of the 2023 General Elections, especially that of the Presidency that held on February 25, 2023.

NewsOrient reports that Nigeria’s social and political space has not remained the same since last week, when the celebrated novelist wrote a letter to Joe Biden, US President, telling the world leader in clear terms not to give credence to the flawed Nigerian 2023 Presidential Election that produced Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu as winner.

Chimamanda also questioned the rationale for the congratulatory message already sent by the American State Department, which she said ought to know how bad the election was.

In their reactions to Chimamanda’s letter, the ruling political party, APC, especially, Bola Tinubu’s spokesmen, Festus Keyamu, Femi-Fani Kayode and Bayo Onanuga, have used harsh words against the person of Chimamanda and her letter.

In her latest response to the comments against her person and her letter, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who appeared as a Guest on Prime Time, a current affairs programme on Arise Television, said her motive for writing the letter was to lay the truth bare for posterity and to put it on record that the election was not the true reflection of the will of Nigerians.

She said: “I wrote that letter because I think it is important to preserve the truth. I think when something like this happens in a country, I think it is important to tell the story of what really happened. One of favourite poems, says – and yet, why not say what happened – I wanted to say what happened and what happened is that this was an election that was unforgivably flawed. And there is evidence for that and I felt that it was important to say that.

“But also, I wanted to call out the US for what I consider the two-facedness when it comes to Africa. The US has a long history of complicity in non-democratic elections on this continent. Recently, in Congo, two or three years ago, they endorsed an election that was an absolute sham. Then, the same US will turn around and criticise Congo for not being democratic. So, my point was to say, be what you say you are. You cannot cricise African countries for being undemocratic, while at the same time endorsing something that is quite self-evidently, undemocratic.

“Yes, I think that one thing that is most glaring is that we Nigerians all saw these mutilated result sheets. We saw polling unit agents talking about how what they had from the polling units was not what was announced officially or what was uploaded officially. And I think for me that is a really striking reason and an example of how this election was not about technical glitches. And can we also realise that Nigeria is full of very bright young people in tech?

“There is no reason for that excuse of technical glitch. And the other question is if it was a technical glitch, why was it possible for most people to upload results of other federal elections, but not the presidential? And most of all is that there has been this resounding, unfortunate silence from INEC and from the Chair of INEC. I think Nigerians deserve the respect of an institution that is supposed to shepherd our democracy. Nobody has been able to explain to Nigerians how that happened. That statement on technical glitches is unconvincing.

“Known how much hope and trust Nigerians invested in this election, knowing that Nigeria is a low-trust society, it means, I think that if people are sincere, then you make an extra effort to go out and explain to Nigerians what happened.”

-Source: http://newsorientng.com