There is a stench rising from Nigeria’s political elite, and it is the rancid odor of cowardice masquerading as patriotism. Their unrelenting obsession with British Conservative Leader, Kemi Badenoch has descended into full-blown hysteria, a grotesque spectacle that reveals far more about them than it ever could about her. This is not patriotism. This is paranoia. And it must be called what it is: Kemi Derangement Syndrome (KDS) – a virulent affliction now gripping Nigeria’s ruling class with the ferocity of a rabid dog. There is something deeply troubling, even pathological, about the way some past and present leaders, most recently, including Vice President Karim Shettima himself, have fixated on Kemi Badenoch. The latest torrent of invective, drenched in venom and barely restrained misogyny, is not a defense of Nigeria’s dignity. It is a tantrum, a projection, and a national embarrassment.
Let’s be clear: no Nigerian official has shown this level of unhinged outrage at corruption, banditry, mass unemployment, or the murder of schoolchildren by terrorists. But let Kemi Badenoch dare recall her experience of a dysfunctional Nigerian boarding school; one that many Nigerians can relate to, and suddenly the establishment erupts in coordinated fury. They see betrayal in truth. They call critique “treason.” Welcome to the new national illness: Kemi Derangement Syndrome (KDS). Nigeria’s so-called leaders have shown more rage over Badenoch’s recollection of toilet-less dormitories and grass-cutting student punishments than they have over the mass killings in Plateau, the kidnapped schoolchildren in Zamfara, the economic collapse choking millions, or the relentless looting of national wealth. They have not raised their voices against genocidal insecurity, crumbling education, or the daily disgrace of their own governance. But let a foreign-born Nigerian woman dare utter an uncomfortable truth, and the knives come out.
This is not defense of national honor; it is the violent insecurity of a ruling mafia unaccustomed to accountability. It is the terrified squeal of a bloated political class whose power depends on suppressing truth and punishing dissent. And it is shameful. The symptoms of KDS are unmistakable: irrational rage, selective amnesia, aggressive defensiveness, and a compulsive need to discredit a woman who has dared to say aloud what many Nigerians whisper in shame. Instead of introspection, Nigerian elites lash out with name-calling, passport revocation threats, and hypocritical sermons about loyalty. One former minister even suggested Badenoch is “genetically predisposed to lies-telling.” Such language is not only absurd; it is deeply unbecoming of any public servant.
Let us remind these officials: Kemi Badenoch is not the reason Nigeria ranks among the lowest in global education indexes. She is not responsible for students being crammed 30 to a room, cutting grass with machetes, or washing toilets with no water. Kemi Badenoch did not invent Nigeria’s broken schools. She did not create the chaos, the filth, or the cruelty that defines the experience of millions of Nigerians trapped in a failed state. Those are products of decades of government neglect; your neglect. She merely spoke about them, and that, in the minds of these feeble-minded tyrants, is the ultimate sin. Let us be clear: the true enemies of Nigeria are not in Westminster; they are in Abuja. The true threat to Nigeria’s image is not a British MP, but a shameless, corrupt, and hollow elite who have turned a richly blessed nation into the global capital of poverty. If Nigeria’s international image is bruised, the bruises were inflicted from within, not by a British politician recounting her youth.
What is especially galling is the eagerness with which these same officials embrace praise from the diaspora when it flatters them, yet unleash fury when it exposes uncomfortable truths. This hypocrisy reveals a class of leaders not committed to national progress, but addicted to self-preservation and allergic to accountability. For the Vice President of the Federal Republic, senior ministers, and recycled propagandists like Fani-Kayode to collectively foam at the mouth over a school anecdote; while remaining dead silent about billions stolen, lives lost, and dreams shattered, is proof that these men do not serve Nigeria. They serve their egos, their bank accounts, and the brittle illusion of national greatness they themselves have destroyed.
Yes, Kemi Badenoch can be provocative. Yes, she has her political agenda. But her words; whether about citizenship law confusion or her experience at Federal Government College Sagamu, deserve critical engagement, not rabid denunciation. Truth is not treason. Memory is not malice. And no amount of bombastic outrage, no cascade of press releases, no hollow threats can erase the lived experiences of millions who, like her, carry the scars of Nigeria’s broken systems or conceal this truth: Nigeria is broken, and its leaders are the wrecking crew. To accuse Badenoch of “treason,” call for her passport to be revoked, and denounce her as a “genetic liar” is not only misogynistic; it is grotesque. These attacks reek of colonial self-loathing. These are the tantrums of men unfit for leadership. Men who cannot build a decent school but will rage endlessly when someone describes the indecency. Men who choke at criticism but gorge on the privileges of failure.
Nigerian leaders should ask themselves why their first instinct is to silence criticism, rather than correct the failures that gave rise to it. If they spent half as much time fixing Nigeria as they do, vilifying Kemi Badenoch, perhaps she would have had a different story to tell. Kemi Badenoch is not Nigeria’s problem. The problem is a political class so fragile, so narcissistically insecure, that it cannot bear even a mirror held to its own face. History will remember that, when given the choice to reflect and reform, they chose instead to bark like wounded hyenas at a woman who dared to remember. Patriotism begins with honesty. Kemi Badenoch is not the problem. Nigeria’s problem is a ruling class that cannot stand the truth because it indicts them. And if the truth makes them this hysterical, then the truth is exactly what the world needs to hear.
