‘I do not want to go back to Nigeria’ — Chimamanda Adichie after son’s death

Award-winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has said she no longer wants to return to Nigeria, describing how the death of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu, has fundamentally changed her relationship with a country that has long occupied a central place in her life and writing.

Ms Adichie made the disclosure in an interview with The New York Times, which her management made available to PREMIUM TIMES, as she and her husband, Ivara Esege, continue to seek accountability over the circumstances surrounding their son’s death in Lagos.

Nkanu died on 6 January following complications during a medical procedure at Euracare Multi-Specialist Hospital in Lagos.

According to a report by Premium Times, Ms Adichie had earlier accused the hospital of negligence, prompting Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to order an investigation.

His death prompted a complaint by his parents and subsequent regulatory proceedings over alleged medical negligence.

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) later announced an initial finding of negligence against three doctors involved in the child’s care. One of the doctors, from Atlantis Pediatric Hospital, where Nkanu was initially treated, was subsequently cleared.

The case is also the subject of a coroner’s inquest, which has been adjourned.

For Ms Adichie, however, the consequences of the tragedy have extended beyond the ongoing proceedings. The writer, whose work has repeatedly explored questions of Nigerian identity, migration and belonging, said the experience has altered her sense of Nigeria as home.

What happened

According to Ms Adichie’s account in the interview, Nkanu became ill while the family was in Lagos for the holidays in December.

He initially appeared to have a cold but later developed a fever, and his condition worsened.

Mr Esege, a retired family physician, began treating him with antibiotics. By New Year’s Day, however, the toddler had not improved, prompting his parents to take him to a children’s hospital.

Mr Esege became concerned that his son could have a typical Kawasaki disease, a serious condition that can cause severe complications.

He contacted Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States, near the family’s home in Maryland. The hospital agreed to admit Nkanu but requested that he undergo a brain MRI before he could be transported by air ambulance.

The family subsequently took him to Euracare in Lagos for the procedure.

‘They gave him too much Propofol’

Nkanu was sedated with Propofol to keep him still during the MRI.

Ms Adichie told The New York Times that she was waiting outside when she noticed a doctor hurriedly entering the catheterisation laboratory.

She said she became alarmed and waited in what she described as “pure panic.”

According to the author, Euracare’s medical director, Tosin Majekodunmi, later approached her and explained what had happened.

“He was very calm, and he said to me, ‘Well, look, they gave him too much Propofol,’” she said.

The family said the excessive anaesthetic led to cardiac arrest.

Ms Adichie said she briefly left the hospital to arrange documents and financial matters for the proposed air ambulance. During that period, her husband examined medical reports prepared for the transfer team.

According to the interview, Mr Esege found that his son had a zero score on the coma scale and fixed, dilated pupils. He then asked his wife to return to the hospital.

The couple said medical staff continued attempts to resuscitate Nkanu for several hours before he was pronounced dead at about 8 a.m. on 6 January.

Family seeks accountability

Ms Adichie and her husband said their pursuit of answers through the coroner’s proceedings is not primarily about financial compensation.

Rather, they hope the case will lead to improvements in Nigeria’s healthcare system and prevent another family from experiencing a similar tragedy.

“That’s the only thing we can try and do just to help,” Mr Esege said. “Hopefully, someone else will not have to go through this.”

The family’s legal representatives have, however, expressed concerns about delays in the proceedings.

The coroner’s inquest has been postponed as legal arguments over the circumstances of Nkanu’s death continue.

The hospital’s legal team also generated controversy during the proceedings after raising the issue of the parents’ decision to cremate their son.

Ms Adichie criticised the approach, describing it as a “monstrous, cynical game” being played with the family’s grief.

‘I do not want to go back’

Beyond the legal battle, Ms Adichie said the loss has transformed her relationship with Nigeria.

The shift is particularly poignant for a writer whose fiction and essays have repeatedly wrestled with questions of home, migration and Nigerian identity.

In her 2013 novel, Americanah, Ms Adichie wrote of Nigeria as the place where she could “sink my roots in without the constant urge to tug them out.”

Now, she says, that attachment has changed.

“I do not want to go back to Nigeria,” she told The New York Times.

Her 10-year-old daughter, however, still considers Nigeria her “happy place.”

The family is also navigating the loss through Nkanu’s surviving twin brother, who is still too young to fully understand what happened. Ms Adichie said the boy continues to tell people that his twin brother is still in Lagos.

The New York Times journalist Veronica Chambers, who interviewed the couple at their Maryland home, described a family living with profound grief.

For Ms Adichie, whose writing has for decades examined what it means to leave Nigeria, return to it and belong to it, the tragedy has made that question painfully personal.