Why Chimamanda rejected national honour from Buhari

Award-winning Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie declined the national honour offered to her by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The writer, it was gathered, declined the honour in private as she does not want undue publicity.

Omawunmi Ogbe, the writer’s communication manager, confirmed the development to Guardian.

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.”

Recall this is not the first time an honouree will reject 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 which had Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan as president respectively.