Kemi Badenoch: Between sweet lies and the bitter truth

Avigdor Lieberman, a Soviet-born Israeli politician, served twice as the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2008 and 2009 to 2012. He later served as the Minister of Finance between 2021 and 2022. Lieberman was the founder of the secular nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party. Although Russian-speaking immigrants from the old Soviet Union dominated the party at inception, it later secured broader support in Israel.

Lieberman, a strong supporter of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was known for making provocative or inflammatory utterances in periods of escalating military hostilities, but he never bothered about what critics said about him. “People can choose between the sweet lie or the bitter truth. I say the bitter truth, but many people don’t want to hear it,” he once told the media.

The above statement often occurs to me whenever I hear some Nigerians, particularly serving government officials criticising Nigerian-born British frontline politician and Leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, for her frequent seemingly denigrating remarks about Nigeria, her country of origin. For instance, last December, Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima slammed Bademoch for making disparaging remarks about Nigeria. Shettima said even though she reserves the right to remove Kemi from her name, it does not underscore the fact that the greatest black nation on earth is the nation called Nigeria.

Kemi, however, quickly fired back at Senator Shettima, reminding him that she was not interested in laundering Nigeria’s image, not being in the PR business. Ironically, the same Shettima calling out Badenoch once reduced the occupants of the very exalted offices of Vice President and Senate President in Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and Ahmed Lawan, to ice cream and tomato sellers, respectively.

Badenoch has remained adamant in her bombardment of Nigeria, regardless of jabs she received from Nigerians, including top federal government officials, who accused her of de-marketing her country of origin. She struck again recently while delivering the speech of the year in an event organised by a British think tank, Onward, saying it was not her wish that Britain should be like Nigeria, her country of origin.

Kemi further warned that the UK could become like Nigerian if not reformed. The UK opposition leader recalled that she grew up in Nigeria and watched her relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder, as inflation eroded their earnings. Kemi told her audience that she came to the UK with her father’s last hundred pounds to seek a better life, having lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives and never again wants it to happen.

No sooner than she dropped the microphone, the latest entrant into the very large presidential media team, Daniel Bwala, responded on a Channels Television programme, accusing her of building a rhetoric of denigrating and de-marketing Nigeria to win the acceptance of the rights in her party, which could be counterproductive. Bwala reminded her that former Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, though of Indian origin, did not use widespread gang rape in India, which may be a departure in the hereditary of the Indian people, for gain.

Ironically, the same Bwala condemning Kemi today, during his days in the opposition, described corruption under the Buhari led All Progressive Congress (APC) government as “historic” on the same platform he used to criticize Badenoch. Nobody accused him of de-marketing Nigeria at that time. Even Buhari agreed with the former Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, that Nigeria is a fantastically corrupt country. He was not impeached by the National Assembly for de-marketing Nigeria.

Frankly, one thing I don’t like about Nigerians politicians is that they think that the people have very short memory. Even if we don’t remember, the internet never forgets. Unless we are pretending to be happy with the dystopian nature of life in Nigeria, Kemi said nothing new. Please, who does not know that lives are being destroyed by the worsening inflation in the country?

If things are normal in the country, why are Nigerian professionals, the country’s most cherished assets, abandoning the country in droves to go and seek better life abroad, to the point that a Yoruba word, “japa” (to migrate) has entered the English dictionary? The truth is bitter, but it must be told.

I have not seen any country where tanker explosions claimed more than 200 lives in three months. On October 15, 2024, a fuel tanker exploded in Majiya, Jigawa State, killing 209 people and injuring 124 others. The death toll in the tanker explosion this January at Sabon Kasuwa in Dikko, Gurara LGA of Niger State, was put by the media at 98. These are 98 human beings, not goats or chickens.

There is no reason why somebody would be so desperate to go and scoop fuel, a highly inflammable substance, from a fallen tanker, if not extreme multidimensional poverty. Besides, the sudden 600 per cent increase in the price of fuel since President Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy on his first day in office, has made the commodity more attractive to poor Nigerians to scoop from fallen tankers to make quick money.

Over time, the country has experienced spiraling inflation, making it more difficult for the average citizen to meet physiological needs, such as food, shelter, water and clothing. The cost of everything is being hiked.  The cost of energy has risen astronomically. Cooking gas is very expensive. Kerosene also.

The high cost of fuel has quadrupled upwards the cost of transportation from one place to the other. Promises by government to introduce cushioning measures to reduce the people’s hardship are not fulfilled and yet, nobody is held accountable.

Insecurity in Nigeria has assumed epidemiological proportions. Nigerians are brutally killed daily by non-state actors and all kinds of criminal gangs, including those who kidnap innocent citizens to extort ransom from them or their relatives. The statistics released the other day by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on the insecurity in Nigeria were frightening.

Infrastructure wise, we have not fared better despite the trillions of Naira that successive governments claimed that they expended on infrastructure development. Most of our highways are in decrepit state. The rail infrastructure is underdeveloped. Electricity is still epileptic in spite of the trillions of naira which successive governments claimed they expended on the power infrastructure. We can no longer keep count of the number of times that the national grid collapsed in recent times.

The country is almost insolvent, and is borrowing to fund its budget. Sometime last year, we were told that the countries debt servicing soared to N6 trillion. About 47 per cent of the countries expenditure in the past nine months went into debt servicing. Yet, political office holders live flamboyantly in N21 billion mansions, relax in yachts, fly aircrafts worth 150 million dollars, and drive in superb latest model automobiles worth N1 billion.

Therefore, even if we are not comfortable with the representation of the country by Badenoch, it is not in our interest to dismiss the substance of it. A problem persists when we don’t agree that such a problem exists.

Dr Nzomiwu is a regular Commentator on public affairs.  He can be reached via: [email protected]