Award-winning and renowned author, Chimamanda Adichie joined Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed at the Presidential Election Petition Court on Tuesday in Abuja.
Obi and his vice are in court for the final written address of the petition they filed challenging the victory of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Adichie had written an open letter to President Joe Biden titled “Nigeria’s Hollow Democracy,” where she condemned America for congratulating President Ahmed Bola Tinubu on winning the general elections.
In the letter she said “Something remarkable happened on the morning of February 25, the day of the Nigerian presidential election. Many Nigerians went out to vote holding in their hearts a new sense of trust. Cautious trust, but still trust.”
“What followed was a breach of that trust, when on February 26 social media became flooded with evidence of voting irregularities: “numbers crossed out and rewritten; some originally written in black ink had been rewritten in blue, some blunderingly whited-out with Tipp-Ex. The election had been not only rigged, but done in such a shoddy, shabby manner that it insulted the intelligence of Nigerians.”
Adichie questioned the U.S. State Department’s response in congratulating Tinubu and accepting the election results.
She said,“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.”
To Biden, Adichie said: “You have spoken of the importance of a ‘global community for democracy,’ and the need to stand up for ‘justice and the rule of law.’
“A global community for democracy cannot thrive in the face of apathy from its most powerful member. Why would the United States, which prioritizes the rule of law, endorse a president-elect who has emerged from an unlawful process?”
She maintained that “Congratulating (the election’s) outcome, President Biden, tarnishes America’s self-proclaimed commitment to democracy. Please do not give the sheen of legitimacy to an illegitimate process. The United States should be what it says it is.”
