7th April, 2023
The Office of Nigeria’s President-elect has hit back at novelist, Chimamanda Adichie, describing her open letter to President Joe Biden as a reflection of pathetic colonial mentality.
Adichie, in an open letter to Biden on Thursday wondered why he United States congratulated Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on his victory at the last presidential poll, as the election was tainted.
Adichie said congratulating its outcome, President Biden tarnished America’s self-proclaimed commitment to democracy.
But reacting to Adichie’s letter, Spokesperson, Office of the President-elect, Festus Keyamo, said in global diplomacy and international relations, Presidents of countries made decisions and take actions about other countries’ affairs (albeit within the limits of sovereignty of States in International Law) based on reports from official and diplomatic sources likely to have been conveyed through well-established channels of communications.
He said the long epistles written in flowery or purple prose by bitter supporters of sore losers, posing as ‘concerned citizens’ (but in reality actuated by ethnic politics) did not fall within these official or diplomatic sources.
“It is befuddling that someone such as Chimamanda often celebrated for using a God-given talent to promote our African values, will so tragically degrade that same ethos by penning a letter that is so petty, so grovelling in its tone in urging a single foreign power to withhold a mere congratulatory message to our President-elect as if that is what actually validates our own democratic identity.
“It reflects a pathetic colonial mentality. It is even more ironic to realise that the same foreign power to which the obsequious appeal is directed is still grappling with the credibility of its own internal democratic process that produced its present leadership.
“More tragic is that some rabid supporters here are falling over themselves in deluded ecstasy for such a worthless letter that may not even be considered worthy enough, in a diplomatic sense, for the attention of even a stenographer to an Under Secretary in the US.
“Such only paints the picture of a band of drowning supporters clutching at any straw to stay afloat,” he said.
Keyamo added that as for the empirical fallacies contained in the letter, he would not bother himself with a lengthy response as enough had been said in the last few weeks in respect of those specific issues and that all the issues were before the Justices awaiting adjudication.
“But I have bad news for them: the stenographer will probably toss the letter into a trash bin with the conclusion that it is no more than the tantrums of a Trump reincarnate in Nigeria – those who refuse to accept obvious defeat! Yes, the US has the likes of that writer in their midst too!” he said.