Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the globally renowned award-winning Nigerian author has rejected the national honours from her country.
Adichie was recently decorated with Harvard University’s iconic W.E.B. Du Bois Medal.
Adichie’s communications team member, Omawumi Ogbe, in a statement stated that the accomplished author had declined the honour.
Ogbe, in the statement stated: “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.
While conferring the award on 450 Nigerians and foreigners, President Buhari had justified the honours, saying the awardees had distinguished themselves in the service of the nation and humanity.
“We have among the recipients today, Amb. Prof. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who are doing our country proud on the international scene,” Buhari said. “Our dear sisters are a source of inspiration to our young women that through the dint of hard work and dedication, they can achieve greatness.”
This is not the first time an honouree will turn down a national honour from a Nigerian president.
The late world-acclaimed Nigerian literary giant and author of Things Fall Apart, Professor Chinua Achebe, rejected the national honours award in 2004 and 2011, leading to serious uproar at that time.
Achebe claimed he rejected the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) award because of his dissatisfaction with the handling of the country’s affairs by then ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
The late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, foremost human rights activist and fiery lawyer is also on record as having turned down the national honour when listed as a recipient.
