&w=64&q=75)
Reno Omokri, social media critic and former aide to erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan, has said the Nigerian economy is growing faster than the British.
Omokri made this known while reacting to the controversial remarks about Nigeria attributed to Kemi Badenoch, a British politician of Nigerian origin and leader of the UK Conservative Party.
Badenoch has become persona non grata in Nigeria due to her penchant for propagating negative narratives about the country where she lived until she clocked 16.
She has repeatedly spoken about her “very tough upbringing” in Nigeria at several fora, describing her background as "middle-class" but claiming "being middle class in Nigeria still meant having no running water or electricity, sometimes taking your own chair to school."
Among other rhetorics, she also claimed that her family went through periods of poverty in Nigeria due to inflation.
Omokri, Shettima slam Badenoch
Vice President Kashim Shettima blasted Badenoch, accusing the Conservative leader of disparaging the country.
Speaking at the 10th Annual Migration Dialogue at the State House in Abuja on Monday, Shettima said Nigeria is proud of Badenoch despite her efforts at denigrating her country of origin.
He, however, urged the British politician to remove Kemi from her name if she was not proud of her country of origin.
For his part, Omokri said there is no reason for Nigerians to be bothered about the opinion of a British politician because her country’s economic growth is trailing behind the West African country's.
"And why should we even bother about what a British politician thinks about us? Our economy is growing much faster than the British economy. Last quarter, our GDP grew by 3.46% compared to 0.1% (I am not joking. Fact fact-check me) for the UK in the same period.
"According to Goldman Sachs and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Nigeria's economy will be bigger than the UK's by 2050 (PWC) and before 2075 (Goldman Sachs). So, who should be worried about who?" he wrote in an X post on Friday, December 13, 2024.
The former presidential aide also questioned some of the claims made by Badenoch about her Nigerian experiences, urging her to be careful in her attempt to warm her way into the hearts of the British public because they can dispense with her at the drop of a heart.
"And what she said about Nigeria was a lie. Kemi grew up as the child of a lecturer at the University of Lagos. Akoka, where she lived, was a very safe neighbourhood. Her tales of growing up with fear everywhere and every time are not hyperbolic. They are outright lies.
"Kemi ought to be careful about schmoozing up to the British establishment. She is dispensable. Very dispensable. I will also use real-life experience to buttress my assertions.
"All my life, I have always thought that the athlete Linford Christie was British and British only. Throughout his long and successful career of winning medals at the Olympics, World Athletics Championships, and the Commonwealth Games, the headlines only ever described him as British. He was named British Sports Personality of the Year by the BBC in 1993, for goodness' sake!
"It was only when, at the end of his career, the International Association of Athletics Federations suspended him for doping that the British media changed his identity from British athlete to 'Jamaican Born British Athlete Suspended By IAAF For Doping,'" he stated.