By Sabiu Abdullahi
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, has attributed Nigeria’s long-running electricity problems to what she described as poor public policy, despite the country’s abundant oil and gas resources.
Badenoch made the remarks during a recent interview with The Spectator, where she reflected on her upbringing and discussed a range of issues.
According to her, the presence of natural resources alone does not guarantee development if government policies fail to support their effective use.
“My belief that we need to drill our oil and gas comes from growing up in a country… Nigeria is an oil-producing country that has never had electricity,” she said.
“It is very easy to have resources under the ground, but stupid public policy means that you can’t use them,” she added.
Her comments come at a time when Nigeria continues to face persistent power supply shortages despite reforms and the privatisation of the electricity sector over the years.
Available data shows that the country’s electricity generation has largely remained between 3,500 and 5,000 megawatts, a figure many analysts consider inadequate for a population estimated at more than 250 million people.
Meanwhile, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently assured Nigerians that his administration would continue efforts to tackle the challenges facing the power sector.
