Nigerian writer and novelist, Chimamanda Adichie, disagreed with Prof Soyinka’s assertion that Datti Baba-Ahmed’s comments were fascist, saying that there’s nothing he said that underscored that argument.

According to the 45-year-old in an interview on Arise TV on Tuesday night, INEC, on the contrary, is guilty of fascism, adding that a lot of Nigerians feel cheated.

“Because I respect Soyinka a lot, I went back and watched the interview again. I think fascism is a really strong word, which often made me think of (Benito) Mussolini of Italy, we use now. I do not see any reason Datti Baba-Ahmed’s interview should be termed fascist,” she said in an interview on Arise TV on Tuesday night.

“I think he was making a very strong and fair point about the election and he was saying, which again, I thought is fairly reasonable, that if our democracy is rooted in the constitution and you then swear in a person who is being elected unconstitutionally, and you are in fact ending democracy. I think it is quite a reasonable position. Of course, we can argue about what that means in the Constitution.

“I am very grateful for this whole election period because it made me read things I probably would not have, such as the Nigerian constitution and also made me have quite a few suggestions for editing. I think now we are talking about what ‘and’ means. So Mr. Ahmed Datti-Baba is saying that it is two-thirds and the FCT and that’s separate and it’s a reasonable argument.”