…Cites “stupid public policy”
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, has launched a blistering critique against Nigerian political leadership, citing the country’s persistent lack of electricity despite its massive crude oil wealth as a prime example of how “stupid public policy” can ruin a nation.
Speaking in a published interview yesterday, the British politician used her experience of growing up in Nigeria during the military dictatorships of the 1980s and 1990s to warn Western nations against aggressive state control over energy sectors.
Badenoch argued that natural resources are functionally useless without competent economic strategies, drawing a direct line between the failures of Nigerian governance and modern Western climate policies.
According to her, “Nigeria is an oil-producing country, but it’s never had electricity. It is very easy to have resources under the ground, but stupid public policy means that you can’t use it”.
She directly compared the current energy strategies of the British government to the socialist-leaning command economies of Nigeria’s past military juntas. “They have the exact same mentality; the government is going to take control they say: ‘we know what’s best, we’re going to redistribute’. Stupid ideas, which eventually just bankrupt the country”, she added.
The opposition leader explained that witnessing the economic decay of a resource-rich nation during her youth deeply shaped her right-wing political philosophy. She emphasised that her bluntness regarding developing countries stems from a desire to protect the United Kingdom from similar institutional decline.
