Last week, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie one of the greatest novelists to emerge from Africa and one of the most celebrated in Nigeria today, fired a letter to Joe Biden, US President to confront him on his country’s attitude to the general elections in Nigeria, particularly that of the presidency on February 25.

She wondered why the State Department, would be so quick to congratulate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in spite of poll’s manifestly flawed nature. On Tuesday, April 11, she was a guest on Prime Time, a current affairs programme on Arise Television, where she talked about the letter entitled: Nigeria’s Hollow Democracy among other issues, particularly the reactions that has been trailing that outing. Excerpts:

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You called the 2023 presidential elections a slap to the face of Nigerians and insult to the collective intelligence of Nigerians. Why?

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.

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You cannot cricise African countries for being undemocratic, while at the same time endorsing something that is quite self-evidently, undemocratic.

Do you have evidence that what occurred was deliberate manipulation, as you claimed?

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.

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Knowing 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.

But the APC accuses you of not being in Nigeria during the election and did not vote and therefore in no position to criticise what you didn’t witness. What’s your reaction?

I don’t think it is useful criticism. I should say first of all, that I’ve never been fazed by criticisms. I wrote this knowing fully well that there would be criticisms from certain quarters. I seen a few things that people have sent to me and it’s kind of been amusing to read the juvenile fulminations of non-juvenile people.

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But that said, I actually tried very hard and I should say that I have two homes – I have a home in Lagos and I have another home here in the US. I’m very often here. I tried very hard to get my PVC and the reason I tried very hard is because I’d been assured that technology would save us – that it had worked in Osun, worked in Ekiti and I think in Anambra – that it would save us. So, I really tried. So, we should also talk about how difficult it was to collect PVCs and how that in itself is a form of voter disenfranchisement. And so, I had done the first part, but I couldn’t collect my PVC. So, yes, I did not vote. But my not voting does not mean that I can’t comment on an election. I’m a Nigerian citizen. Every Nigerian citizen has a right to have an opinion about this election.

So, when people say that BVAS worked but IReV didn’t work, which is sort of a way of countering the accusation that technology was manipulated, really, the response is, both have to work for the election to be credible. So, BVAS was about making sure that we didn’t have ghost voters and that people who were there actually voted. But that defeats the purpose if you then do not upload the results. You’ve made sure that the real people voted. But those results, we can’t see them in real time, we cannot see them as Prof. Yakubu Mahmood said. He said, and I’m going to quote him because I’ve read it so many times that the public would be able to view the polling unit results as soon as elections are finalised on election day.

So, I think that is an important thing to talk about and address with the Nigerian people. The Electoral Act, gave INEC the legal backing to have electronic transmission of results and did say in a format that INEC would decide. And we know that format because the Chair of INEC told us what that format would be when he said results would be uploaded at the end of voting from the polling units. That was not done. And it seems to me strange to sort of deflect from that important issue and talk about how someone is not in Nigeria. Those are not the point. The point is what happened?

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Are you worried about the possibility of a lawsuit as being threatened by the Tinubu camp for suggesting that he compromised INEC?

No, I’m not worried at all. Again, I think these are what is trying to deflect from what is important and what it is at stake. It will be very useful if people are able to point out what is untrue in the letter. I think it is important. We all know these stories about people who complained about how what we voted at the polling units is not what we saw in the result. Yes, there are anecdotes. But I think that gave us useful insight into what happened in that election in a way that all of those anecdotes become a kind of tidal wave of truth-telling. I think the rumours surrounding this election are part of the story this election. If you leave a gap in information, people will fill that gap. It is how human minds work. Again, this our country is such a low-trust society and people are so desperate to believe in something and we believe in this election but it doesn’t work out well and nobody gives us convincing reasons. Of course people are going to rumour about people being compromised. Also, our political landscape is steeped in people being compromised. So, I’m not worried about that. I think any fair-minded person in this country who is honest will acknowledge that these rumours are circulating. I stated very clearly that there are no evidence for them, but I do think it is important to see in the story of this election that many people are starting to think that what explained what happened is this compromising.

You supported Peter Obi in that election and the Tinubu camp has accused you of supporting your tribesman. Is this actually the case?

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You’re right. Tribesman is such an outdated and strange expression, which I think also says something about whoever is using it. I think that kind of accusation is a practice of what psychologists call projecting. You’re doing something, but you accuse someone else of doing it even though they’re not.

I did not support Peter Obi because he’s Igbo as I am. I’m a person who does not take positions lightly. And so, while I very much admire Peter Obi and respect him, there are so many Igbo men I admire and respect, but I’ll never vote for them for President, because I don’t think they’ll make good President. My support for Peter Obi is actually rooted in real things. It’s rooted in my faith in his ability.

Actually, I got to know Peter Obi years ago when he came to pay homage to my parents because he got to know that my father was the first Professor of Statistics in Nigeria and that my mother had retired as the first female Registrar of the University of Nigeria. So, this man just arrived and said he wanted to pay homage. I was very impressed by that because it showed me how much he values education.

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Then he becomes governor of Anambra State and he takes Anambra State to number one in Education. I remember being impressed by the story of how he had given his personal telephone number to all of the senior prefects in secondary schools in Anambra, which also showed me that he’s interested in what ordinary people think. You just don’t want to hear from the ministries, you want to hear from the students about what is really happening.

Then his focus on security. He really tackled kidnapping in Anambra. And I also remember that he really clashed with the Anambra elite, when he was tackling insecurity and kidnapping. That showed me that he’s very decisive. He has a bit of a stubborn streak. He’s very focused on things. That’s really why I support him. So, this idea of ethnicity is just really a way of deflecting. Let’s focus on what really matters. It’s unfortunate. Can I just say that it’s only one part of the spectrum that is politicising ethnicity and I think it is very unfortunate. I don’t think most people in Nigeria really care about ethnicity as much as they care of having a country that works.

We want good leadership. We want the hospitals and the schools and the roads to be good. That affects everyone – Igbo, Yoruba, Ijaw – everyone.

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How do you view Prof. Wole Soyinka’s position that Datti Baba-Ahmed’s comments on the outcome of the election as fascistic? I know you hold or had held Soyinka in high esteem. What do you think?

I still do. I have a lot of love for Prof. Soyinka. I admire him, I respect him as a thinker, as a writer – I think everyone should read The Man Died – and Ake, his memoir is beautiful. But at the same time, I disagree with him very strongly with him about this particular issue. And actually because I respect Prof. Soyinka, so much, I went back and watched this particular interview – I had watched it when it aired, but I went back and watched it because I thought, am I missing something? I think fascist is a very strong word. Fascist often makes me think of Mussolini’s Italy. Then we use it now sort of to address this sort of authoritarianism that often populates right-wing – like Hungary and even the American President. And if you look at the situation, you can see why they have been termed fascists. I do not see any reason that Mr. Datti Baba-Ahmed’s interview would have been termed fascist. I think he was making a very strongly-felt point about the election. What he was saying, which again, I thought quite reasonable, is that our democracy is rooted in our constitution and you then swear in a person who is elected unconstitutionally, then you’re in fact, ending democracy. I think it is quite a reasonable position. Of course we can argue about what that bit in the constitution means.

I’m actually grateful about this whole election period because it has made me read things that I probably wouldn’t have, such as the Nigerian constitution and made me have quite a few suggestions for editing. But I think we’re now talking about what does And, mean? Datti Baba-Ahmed is saying that it is two-thirds and the FCT, and that is separate. It is a reasonable argument. And is a conjunction. We use it in that context often to mean plural. And then we say, Aisha and Yemi are coming. We don’t say Aisha and Yemi is coming. That’s because they’re two separate things. Of course, the court will interpret. But I don’t think it is unreasonable for educated Nigerians who can read, who know what the word and means to make their own interpretations and to argue it. Of course, the fact that the Labour Party is in court, means that they don’t believe that this election is constitutional.

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So, I didn’t quite see why it should be termed fascist. I think a charitable way of reading Prof. Soyinka’s comment is that he is not given to restraint in language in general. May be that’s where that word fascist came from.

However, I have suggestions for what we could use fascists for. We could use fascists for INEC, because as it is now, many Nigerians feel deeply cheated by INEC, deeply disenfranchised by INEC and there is an authoritarianism, which obviously is the basis of fascism at the centre of manipulating an election. Because what you’re doing is that you’re ganging people, you’re forcefully taking away their voice. That’s fascist. Fascist is all the violence that happened in the elections. Fascist is the way that some people remain silent about that violence. Fascist is the government that hasn’t come out to address the very tangible and palpable discontent in this country.

When I say we can use fascist for INEC, what I mean is that so many of us including myself are convinced that this was in no way technological glitch. I think that Prof. Yakubu had an opportunity for heroism and I think he wasted it spectacularly, because he could very easily have become not just the hero of Nigeria but Africa.

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So, many Africans were watching and they were so inspired by what happened before that election by the Obidient Movement. I also think that President Buhari missed an opportunity for heroism, his last chance of heroism, because Nigerians don’t feel that – I think Nigerians felt before that election that he meant well and meant to give a credible election. I don’t think that many Nigerians feel that now. I wish that he had taken a page from former President Jonathan, because he is a moral man, a good man.

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