PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari will confer the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) national honour on Nigerian literary writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
The award-winning author and 436 other notable Nigerians will be officially honoured by the president at a ceremony slated for October 11 in Abuja.
Five recipients will be conferred with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), 54 persons will receive the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), while 67 of the awardees will also receive the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).
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The Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) has 64 recipents, Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) 101, Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) 75, Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) 56, and the Federal Republic Medal (FRM) has eight.
Born in Enugu, Chimamanda has received many global recognitions for her excellent works in literature, which had been translated into over 30 languages and had won numerous awards and prizes.
She was billed to receive Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal on October 6, 2022, the highest honour in the field of African and African-American studies.
Chimamanda was described by The New York Times Magazine in its 2017 ‘Greats’ issue, as “one of those rarest of people: a celebrated novelist who has also become a leading public intellectual.”
She is also a fashion and beauty icon and continuously promotes Nigerian designers, including through her ‘Wear Nigerian’ initiative. She was selected as the face of beauty brand Boots No 7, and had been featured in numerous style publications, including Vanity Fair’s ‘International Best-Dressed List’, and on the covers of British Vogue and Marie Claire Brazil.
In 2018, she was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize, named after Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, given annually to a writer of “outstanding literary merit who shows a fierce intellectual determination.” She shared the prize with imprisoned Saudi lawyer and human rights activist Waleed Abulkhair.
She was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015, and Fortune Magazine named her one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in 2017. In 2018, she received the Global Hope Coalition’s Thought Leadership Award, and the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award.
Chimamanda has received 16 honorary doctorate degrees from some of the world’s leading universities, and is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
A day later, the Federal government debunks the list in circulation saying it is not genuine; however, the source of the lists insists that it is genuine. Read the Update here.
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