“Peter Obi won the presidential election” — Chimamanda Adichie

Nigerian award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Adichie, has insisted that Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, won the 2023 election.

Speaking at the inaugural lecture of the African World Lecture Series at Princeton University in the US on Wednesday, the novelist introduced Obi as “the man who won the presidential election”.

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.

She had written 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 elections were 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 elections, adding that the results of the polls 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.

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“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,” she added.