Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has said she no longer feels the same way about Nigeria following the death of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu.\n<\/p>\n
Adichie, in an interview with The New York Times sighted by PUNCH Online on Sunday, said the loss of her son had changed her feelings towards her home country.\n<\/p>\n
Asked whether Nigeria still felt like somewhere close to her heart, the author gave a blunt response.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMy feelings toward Nigeria have changed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not want to go back to Nigeria.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Nkanu, one of Adichie\u2019s twin boys, died in December 2025 following a medical emergency at Euracare in Nigeria.\n<\/p>\n
According to Adichie, the child initially developed a fever and was placed on antibiotics by her husband, Ivara Esege.<\/p>\n
When his condition failed to improve, the couple took him to the hospital for further examination.\n<\/p>\n
She said Nkanu was later sedated with propofol during an MRI examination, after which he suffered cardiac arrest and died the following day.\n<\/p>\n
Recalling the incident, Adichie said a doctor approached her in a state of panic after the procedure.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very calm and he said to me, \u2018Well, look, they gave him too much Propofol.\u2019 Those were his exact words, which I will never forget until the day I die,\u201d she recalled. <\/p>\n
Adichie had in June publicly raised allegations of medical negligence concerning the treatment her son received at the hospital.\n<\/p>\n
The circumstances surrounding Nkanu\u2019s death have since become the subject of a coroner\u2019s inquest, with the proceedings reportedly marked by delays and disagreements between the family and the hospital.\n<\/p>\n
Euracare has reportedly accused Adichie and her husband of destroying evidence by cremating their son\u2019s remains, an allegation connected to the ongoing proceedings.<\/p>\n
Adichie and her husband have called for improvements in Nigeria\u2019s healthcare system but have not instituted a lawsuit against the hospital, according to the report.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking about the possibility of returning to Nigeria, Adichie said her children could be the only reason she would consider doing so.\n<\/p>\n
She said her daughter still regarded Nigeria as her \u201chappy place\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
Before her son\u2019s death, Adichie said Nigeria remained deeply connected to her identity and writing, describing it as the place where she received \u201ceverything\u201d that enabled her to become a writer.\n<\/p>\n
However, the pain of losing her son has altered that connection.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it is so surreal, all of this. I still can\u2019t believe we\u2019re talking about my son who died,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going through something, but you also feel like you\u2019re outside of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has said she no longer feels the same way about Nigeria following the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[254099,73803,48621,254100,254101,254102,96,254103,59,150173,254104,254105,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-769756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-chimamanda","tag-chimamanda-adichie","tag-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie","tag-chimamanda-son","tag-chimamanda-son-death","tag-dr-ivara-esege","tag-entertainment","tag-euracare-hospital","tag-gb","tag-medical-negligence","tag-nkanu","tag-nkanu-adichie","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}