Festus Keyamo says Chimamanda Adichie’s open letter asking the U.S. President to withhold his congratulatory message from Nigeria’s president-elect Bola Tinubu, reeked of a “pathetic colonial mentality” and election denialism similar to that of Donald Trump, who contested Joe Biden’s election victory in 2021.

Mr Keyamo, campaign spokesperson for Mr Tinubu, rebuked the celebrated writer for seeking validation for Nigeria’s democracy in the form of a “mere congratulatory message to our President-elect” particularly from a leader whose election victory had also been deemed fraudulent by Mr Trump. 

“It is befuddling that someone 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,” Mr Keyamo wrote on his Twitter account on Friday. “It reflects a pathetic colonial mentality.”

Mr Keyamo said it was ironic “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.”

The APC loyalist said Ms Adichie’s letter would most likely be tossed in a trash can after Mr Biden realises its content echoed the tantrums of Mr Trump, his predecessor.

He “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!”

In all of Mr Keyamo’s bluster, he, however, failed to address the cogent arguments raised in Ms Adichie’s letter where she pointed out that there were discrepancies between the result sheets from polling units photographed by voters and the ones belatedly uploaded on the electoral commission’s portal. He only said the matter which he described as “empirical fallacies” was in court without elaborating.

It’s been over a month since Mr Tinubu was declared winner of the presidential polls by Mahmood Yakubu,  chair of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but the White House has yet to bid him congratulations, as is customary when any nation deemed an ally of the U.S. elects a new president.

Rivals of the ruling party have claimed that Mr Biden’s silence indicates his intention to avoid recognising Mr Tinubu as the legitimate winner of a flawed election tainted by “irregularities and  violence,” in the words of Britain think-tank, Chatham House.