Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, has criticised Nigeria’s long-standing electricity challenges, arguing that the country’s vast oil wealth has failed to translate into reliable power supply for citizens.
Speaking in an interview, Badenoch said her experiences growing up in Nigeria before relocating to the United Kingdom as a teenager had significantly shaped her political and economic views.
“My belief that we need to drill our oil and gas comes from growing up in a country Nigeria is an oil-producing country, never had electricity,” she said.
Badenoch argued that the presence of natural resources alone does not guarantee economic development, blaming policy failures for preventing countries from fully benefiting from their resource wealth.
“It is very easy to have resources under the ground, but stupid public policy means that you can’t use it,” she said.
The Conservative leader also drew parallels between policies pursued by the British government and the approach adopted by Nigeria’s military administrations during the 1980s and 1990s.
She criticised the policies of Ed Miliband, the UK’s Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, saying they reflected a belief that government control and redistribution could solve economic challenges.
“And I see quite a lot of what Ed Miliband is doing as being very much like what the Nigerian military dictatorships were doing in the 80s and 90s ‘the government is going to take control, we know what’s best, we’re going to redistribute’. Stupid ideas which eventually just bankrupt the country,” she said.
Badenoch further said her upbringing in Nigeria had influenced her views on governance and economic management, warning against policies she believes could weaken Britain’s economy.
“Fundamentally, my views about how we should run our country come from growing up in a place that was very poor. You grow up in a third-world country and you look at why it is termed ‘third world,’ and I don’t want that to happen here,” she said.
The politician added that Britain’s prosperity, history and institutions were often taken for granted and called for renewed efforts to preserve what she described as British culture and values.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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