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Award-winning Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, rejected the national honour offered to her by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The writer’s communications manager, Omawumi Ogbe, confirmed the development to Guardian on Thursday.
Ogbe said Chimamanda conveyed her non-acceptance of the award privately because she does not want undue publicity.
Ogbe said: “Following the recent conferment of national awards by the President, there have been conflicting reports about one of the announced recipients, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Some social media users say the award-winning writer rejected the award, while others say she accepted it.
“The author did not accept the award and, as such, did not attend the ceremony. She, however, did not want to create undue publicity around it, so her non-acceptance was conveyed privately,” Ogbe said.
This is not the first time an honouree will turn down a national honour from a Nigerian president.
The late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a foremost human rights activist and lawyer, rejected the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) conferred on him in 2008 by the Umaru Yar’Adua administration. Late Prof. Chinua Achebe, the world-acclaimed Nigerian literary giant and author of Things Fall Apart, also rejected the national honours award in 2004 and 2011.
Achebe said he rejected the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) award because he was dissatisfied with the handling of the country’s affairs by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
In 2011, Achebe rejected the same award from the Goodluck Jonathan administration, saying the reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made in 2004 had not been addressed.
