Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has criticized Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s claim that supporters of Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, dubbed Obidients, are fascists.
Soyinka accused the Labour Party Vice Presidential candidate, Baba Ahmed-Datti, of being fascist in an interview with Channels Television, following Datti’s statement that President-elect Bola Tinubu should not be sworn in.
Soyinka also accused Obidients of fascism over their alleged refusal to entertain corrective criticism as their “badge of honour”.
Author Chimamanda Adichie stated on Arise Television that she admires Wole Soyinka but does not agree with his recent statement. She went on to say that while the term “fascist” can be applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it cannot be applied to Datti and the Obidients.
She said, “I have a lot of love and respect for Prof Soyinka. I admire him, I respect him as a thinker, as a writer…”
She proceeded to praise his works.
She continued: “But at the same time, I disagree very strongly with him about this particular issue. And actually because I respect Professor Wole Soyinka so much, I went back and watched the interview. I had watched it when it aired but I went back and watched it because I thought, ‘am I missing something?’ And I think fascist is a really strong word.”
However, she said that INEC is guilty of fascism and a lot of Nigerians feel cheated by the electoral body.
“Fascist can be used for INEC because many Nigerians feel cheated & gagged; with all the violence that occurred during the elections, that is Fascist,” Adichie said.
She stated further that the 2023 election was unforgivably flawed and that President Muhammadu Buhari and INEC’s Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu “spectacularly wasted an opportunity for heroism”.
Chimamanda added that she wrote the letter to Biden because she believes “it’s important to preserve the truth.”
The Half of a Yellow Sun author said: “I wanted to say what happened. And what happened is that this was an election that was really unforgivably flawed, and there’s evidence for that and I felt it was important to say that.
“And also I wanted to call out the US for what I consider a kind of two-facedness when it comes to Africa. So, 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 criticize Congo for not being democratic. So, my point was to say, be what you say that you are. You cannot criticize African countries for being undemocratic while at the same time endorsing something that is quite self-evidently undemocratic.”
