By Emeka Alex Duru
The controversy on Kemi Badenoch, Leader of the British Conservative Party and her disposition to Nigeria, reminds me of an encounter with a media aide to a governor in the South East. An obviously traumatised citizen had posted a comment on his social media Facebook page, chiding the governor for always frolicking in Abuja while the state suffers on account of insecurity and poor governance. That was all that it took for our friend, the media aide to get loose against the hapless citizen.
In a bid to ensure that the altercation did not get out of hand, I asked our friend if the comments by the concerned citizen were out of point. He did not respond immediately. But hours later, he called with a different line, trying to explain his rootless anger. At the end, he admitted that the remarks on the governor were not out of order but that he needed to save his job. And in doing that, he should be seen to be working at all fronts. According to him, the staying power in government or for recognition as a loyal officer, is being seen as supporting the governor and his activities, whether right or wrong. I did not agree with him and told him that I regarded such behaviour as sycophancy. But I could feel his dilemma. He wanted to be noticed and retained in his post.
This may serve in understanding the vitriol against Badenoch by supporters and foot soldiers of the government over her recent comments on Nigeria. Badenoch had in a recent interview spoken about Nigeria as a country plagued by “fear, insecurity, and corruption”, adding that she had “very tough upbringing”, in her early days. She also admitted belonging to the middle class in Nigeria, which she said, meant “having no running water or electricity, sometimes taking your own chair to school”. She further upbraided the country’s leadership class for failing the people. She also scolded the police for robbing the people they were supposed to protect, citing an ugly experience by her brother
Badenoch’s perceived hard punches on the country and its leadership, drew the ire of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, who in retort, reminded her that she had the right to expunge “Kemi” from her name instead of denigrating Nigeria. Shettima did not fault the logic by Badenoch but was more disturbed that she spoke out.
Rented voices and pseudo-patriots have subsequently taken over, calling her names. Pseudo patriots have a common trait of showing off their support for their country but actually not meaning so. They merely take credits that they do not merit. The mob attack on Kemi Badenoch is one of such engagements. These characters have been on the prowl, since the inauguration of the President Bola Tinubu administration, feeding the people on propaganda or knocking down anyone that appears critical of the government’s policies. In our skewed situation, such antics have become the shortest routes to national prominence and the only way to advertise one’s loyalty to the state.
But as former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and President of the African School of Governance, Kingsley Moghalu, rightly observed, trolling Badenoch, has zero implications for Nigeria and Nigerians. What matters is what the government is doing to better the lives of the people it is elected to serve. There is no doubt that some feats had been recorded by the previous and current administrations in the land. But in terms of impacting the people, not much has been achieved.
Indices by even government agencies speak of worrisome gloom at hand. One of such posted by the Statistics Department of the Economic Policy Directorate of the CBN, indicated that inflation jumped to 34.60 per cent in November, a hike of 0.72 percentage points from 33.88 per cent in October. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) last Monday also showed that the latest inflation rate is a significant year-on-year rise, with the November 2024 rate 6.40 percentage pointing higher than the 28.20 per cent in November 2023. Prices of goods and services have been on the rise in the 19 months of the current government.
Elsewhere, a report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), otherwise known as Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian medical care group, indicated that malnutrition in northern Nigeria has hit 51 percent, with Katsina State recording the highest rate. 18.5 million Nigerian children, are out of school, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Insecurity continues to soar, forcing investors to leave the country in droves. Last year, about 1,500 students were kidnapped by gunmen. The figure must have risen. The most embarrassing is that Nigerians paid a staggering N2.3 trillion in ransom to kidnappers between 2023 and 2024, according to NBS report. These figures speak more on the realities in the country than the comments by Kemi Badenoch.
The biggest irony is that while the pseudo-patriots bay for her blood for speaking out, senior government officials, of means and opportunities, have their children schooling abroad or their families living outside the country. Take the former President, Muhammadu Buhari, for instance. While he humoured Nigerians that they had no other country except Nigeria, he ensured that all his children were trained abroad. All his medical procedures including treatment of basic ailments as ear infection, took place in foreign lands. President Tinubu is doing same, presently. That speaks a lot.
There is no better way of telling the world that Nigeria is in trouble than its citizens lacking access to basic political goods, such as education, health, functional infrastructure and security. When the leaders relocate their families abroad for fear of insecurity, to attend structured schools, or travel out for medical reasons, they are simply saying that things are not working here.
Attacking Kemi Badenoch, is not the way to go. The much that can be done is to learn from her criticisms and do the needful. My colleague, Oba Adeoye First, got it that “Kemi hasn’t told a lie. Kemi is just a mirror. If you don’t like what you see in a mirror, don’t break the mirror. Just work on your appearance!”
In doing so, pseudo-patriots should not take the lead. They are like mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, working for their pay not out of conviction. It was against such characters that 18th Century English writer and literary critic, Samuel Johnson, remarked that “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”. His anger was not necessarily about the concept- patriotism – but about those making false use of the term. Patriotism demands being truthful to one’s country. That is what Kemi Badenoch has demonstrated.
*DURU is the Editor, TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos. (08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)