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.
Adichie, in an interview with The New York Times on Sunday, said the loss of her son had changed her feelings towards her home country.
Asked whether Nigeria still felt like somewhere close to her heart, the author gave a blunt response.
“My feelings toward Nigeria have changed,” she said.
“I do not want to go back to Nigeria.”
Nkanu, one of Adichie’s twin boys, died in December 2025 following a medical emergency at Euracare in Nigeria.
According to Adichie, the child initially developed a fever and was placed on antibiotics by her husband, Ivara Esege.
When his condition failed to improve, the couple took him to the hospital for further examination.
She said Nkanu was later sedated with propofol during an MRI examination, after which he suffered cardiac arrest and died the following day.
Recalling the incident, Adichie said a doctor approached her in a state of panic after the procedure.
“He was very calm and he said to me, ‘Well, look, they gave him too much Propofol.’ Those were his exact words, which I will never forget until the day I die,” she recalled.
