Literary icon, Chimamanda Adichie has revealed the reasons behind her support and admiration of Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi in the last elections in Nigeria.  According to her, her support of the candidate didn’t come from a place of tribal sentiments, but from his  his antecedents and her faith in his ability.

Speaking today on Arise TV, the Nigerian-born international writer said,  “Why I very much admire Peter Obi, respect him, there are many others out there whom I admire and respect, and I will never vote for them for president because I don’t just think they will make the president.

“And so my support for Peter Obi is deeply rooted in real things; it is rooted in my faith in his ability. Actually, I got to know him years ago when he came to pay homage to my parents because he had heard my father was the first professor of statistics in Nigeria and that my mother had retired as the first female registrar of the University of Nigeria. And so this man just sort of arrived and said he just wanted to pay homage, and I was very impressed by that because he showed me how much he values education.

“And then, he became governor of Anambra State, and he took Anambra State to number one in education. I remember being very impressed by the story of how he had given his personal phone numbers to all of the senior prefects in secondary schools in Anambra, which I think also showed me he is interested in what ordinary people think.

“He does not just want to hear from the administrators; he wants to hear from them; he wants to hear from the students about what is really happening.

“And his focus on security, he really tackled kidnapping in Anambra, and I also remembered that he used to clash with the Anambra elites when he was tackling insecurity and kidnapping and that showed me he is quite decisive; he is just very focused on things. And that is really why I support him.”