Chimamanda Adichie is concerned that deliberate manipulation tainted the Nigerian election.
Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian author, has warned US President Joe Biden not to legitimize Nigeria's 2023 presidential election by congratulating its winner, Bola Tinubu.
Numerous irregularities marred the February 25 election, particularly the transmission and collation of results, which proved to be a contentious issue.
INEC promised that results would be collated electronically and made available in real time on an online portal, but several glitches hampered the process. The commission turned down numerous requests to fix the glitches and instead announced the winner by manually collating the results.
Adichie accused INEC of betraying Nigerians' trust in an open letter published by the American publication The Atlantic on Thursday, April 6, 2023. She emphasized the documented incidents of violence, destruction, voter intimidation, ethnic profiling, and result sheet manipulation.
"The election had not only been rigged, but done in such a shoddy, shabby manner that it insulted Nigerians' intelligence," she wrote in the letter titled "Nigeria's Hollow Democracy."
Biden is one of the few world leaders who has yet to personally congratulate Tinubu, the 71-year-old former governor of Lagos. However, the US Department of State congratulated him hours after INEC announced the results on March 1 and called the election "a new era in Nigerian politics and democracy."
Adichie slammed Tinubu's congratulatory message as surprising and condescending, and took a swipe at the United Kingdom's prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who has already congratulated Tinubu.
The Half of a Yellow Sun's critically acclaimed author stated,"American intelligence surely cannot be so inept. A little homework and they would know what is manifestly obvious to me and so many others: The process was imperiled not by technical shortcomings but by deliberate manipulation."
Adichie also pointed out to Biden that Tinubu's victory had been met with muted celebrations in Nigeria, leaving the country in a state of unease.
"Rage is brewing, especially among young people. The discontent, the despair, the tension in the air have not been this palpable in years," she warned.
The 45-year-old also told Biden that congratulating Tinubu would lend legitimacy to the election while tarnishing the reputation of the United States, which claims to be committed to democracy.
The writer concluded the open letter by stating that the pain Nigerians feel about the election's outcome is due to the flawed nature of the contest, not who won or lost.
Obi, whom Adichie admitted she backed to win, came in third place in the election and has already filed a legal challenge. Second-placed Atiku has also filed a separate petition to overturn the election results.
However, Tinubu will be sworn in as President Muhammadu Buhari's successor on May 29 before the petitions are heard by the Supreme Court in October.