National Honour: Chimamanda Adichie rejects award, joins the likes of Late Chinua Achebe, Gani Fawehinmi, and Wole Soyinka

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More revelation has trailed the national award conferred on Nigerians by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday. First, Teni was in the news for not saluting the President when she received her award. Now, news reaching us has it that renowned novelist Chimamanda Adichie rejected her award, which was why she was absent from the ceremony.

President Buhari conferred the award on 450 Nigerians and foreigners and justified the honours by saying the awardees had distinguished themselves in the service of the nation and humanity. Buhari said:

“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,”

“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.”

As against the speech of the President, the author was not present, and she spoke about her non-appearance at the ceremony via a member of her communications team, Omawumi Ogbe. The statement on Thursday reads that the writer declined the honour thus:

“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.”

Chimamanda Adichie was recently decorated with Harvard University’s iconic W.E.B. Du Bois Medal.

Chimamanda has now joined honourees, who turned down national honours from a Nigerian president.

Recall that the late Prof. Chinua Achebe rejected a national honours award in 2004 and 2011. 

Also, Achebe said he rejected the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) award because he was dissatisfied with handling 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.

Also, the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, foremost human rights activist and lawyer, also rejected the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) conferred on him in 2008 by the Umaru Yar’Adua administration.

Adding to this list is Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka who in 2014 rejected nomination for a centenary award by the Goodluck Jonathan administration. He said he could not possibly share the award with the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, who he called a “murderer and thief of no redeeming quality.”

Source: withinnigeria.com

#National Award
#Buhari
#Chimamanda Adichie
#Chinua Achebe
#Gani Fawehinmi
#Wole Soyinka