EXTRA: ‘The man who won the election’ — Chimamanda introduces Obi at US university lecture

Chimamanda Adichie, award-winning novelist, on Wednesday introduced Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), as “the man who won the presidential election”.

Adichie was speaking as the inaugural lecturer of the Africa world lecture series at Princeton University in the United States.

During a side chat, the writer introduced Obi to her audience as the man who, according to popular opinion, won the presidential election.

“I want to recognise the presence of a man I deeply respect and a man who I think is a beacon of hope not just for Nigeria but for Africa. And he’s the man who many of us know won the election in Nigeria,” Adichie said.

“He’s also an example of that very rare quality in politicians which is genuine humility.”

Adichie said some of her literary works were inspired by rage stirred up by the happenings in Nigeria, particularly referencing the elections.

The award-winning novelist had written to US President Joe Biden, expressing dissatisfaction over the process of the presidential election, which she said was not marred by technical faults but deliberately manipulated.

In her letter, Adichie said the election was full of discrepancies and irregularities which were all shunned by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Continuing her lecture, the novelist insisted that there was evidence to prove that Obi won the poll, adding that the results of the election have made Nigerian youth grow more disillusioned.

“I have to believe that there is hope for Nigeria,” Adichie said.

“I mean there are many other things I’m enraged about, don’t get me started about women in the world, but what’s happening in Nigeria is quite simple.

“We had an election in February that was deeply flawed, and we have a person who we’ve been told is a winner who did not win the election and this has been shown over and over, there’s evidence for this.

“I think that we have a generation of young people who are increasingly disillusioned because they had such faith in this past election and so for me, it’s simply that I am enraged but also that I am not letting go of hope.”

INEC had declared Bola Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the presidential election after securing a total of 8,794,726 votes.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled second with 6,984,520 votes, while Obi was next with 6,101,533 votes.

Efforts by Atiku and Obi to unseat Tinubu via court petitions have not been successful.