Renowned Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Adichie, has expressed her dissatisfaction with the United States government for congratulating Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s President-elect. Adichie wrote a letter addressed to President Joe Biden, in which she condemned the February 25 presidential election in Nigeria, calling it not only marred by technical faults but also deliberately manipulated.
Adichie, in her letter titled “Nigeria’s Hallow Democracy,” recounted how the country's electoral process has been plagued with fraud and irregularities, causing little confidence in the process. The writer referred to the passage of the Electoral Act 2022, which gave legal backing to electronic accreditation and transmission of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Adichie posited that hope was born because if electronic transmission of results was allowed to function as promised, the ruling APC would have no room for manipulation, adding that Nigerians would no longer have their leaders chosen for them.
However, the writer revealed that the trust she and other Nigerians had in the process quickly dissipated as the election unfolded. There were reports of violence, a shooting at a polling unit, and political operatives stealing or destroying ballot boxes. The electoral commission reneged on its assurance to Nigerians, and the presidential results were not uploaded in real-time. The counting continued swiftly until the ruling party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu, was announced as the President-elect.
Adichie criticized the US State Department for congratulating Tinubu on March 1, despite the irregularities raised by representatives of political parties. She believed the process was imperiled not by technical shortcomings but by deliberate manipulation, and the US government should have been aware of that.
Adichie called on President Biden to look into the situation and take necessary actions, as Nigerians continue to struggle for a genuinely democratic process.
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