Award-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has described the United States government as being a two-faced country over its endorsement of the presidential, governorship, and national and state legislative elections in Nigeria.
Adichie, who recently flew into Lagos, Nigeria, to express her dissatisfaction as contained in an earlier official open letter to President Joe Biden titled “A slap to the Nigerian people and an insult to their collective intelligence,” spoke to Arise TV on Tuesday to provide more insight about her thoughts on the 2023 elections.
Read also: Chimamanda Adichie writes Biden, outlines how Nigeria’s election was manipulated
“Well, it is important to tell the story of what happened,” Adichie said in defense of her open letter, criticising the US government for not only acknowledging but congratulating president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his victory in the February 25 general election.
“I think when something like this happens, I believe it’s important to tell the story of what happened. One of my favourite poems has the line, and it’s by Robert Lowe, and it said “and yet why not say what happened,” she said.
She expressed concern about how the most powerful nation could not stand firm in not only acknowledging the flaws that occurred during the elections but failing to condemn the entire electoral process which declared Tinubu as winner, while still preaching about democracy on the continent.
“So I wanted to say what happened, and what happened is that it was an election that was really unforgiveably flawed, and there is evidence for that — and I felt it was important to say that — and I also wanted to call out the U.S. for what I called “two-facedness” when it comes to Africa,” she added.
She joined the many historians, academicians, and other international affairs analysts, especially on the continent, who have condemned the U.S. for selfish geopolitical policies when it came to Africa.
She said that the “U.S. has a history of complicity in nondemocratic elections on this continent. So recently in Congo, they endorsed an election that was a complete sham, and then the same U.S. would turn around and criticize them for not being democratic. So my point was to say, “Be what you say you are.”
“You cannot criticize African countries for being undemocratic while at the same time endorsing something that is quite evidently undemocratic.”
