By Azu Ishiekwene
Listening to Kenyan President William Ruto diss Nigerians with a smile from faraway Italy, one would think he had taken a page from Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard. It was obvious that Ruto assumed Nigerians spoke that variety of unconventional English rendered by Tutuola in his story of magical realism from Yoruba mythology.
Yes, Tutuola’s English was neither the Oxford lexicon of Ngugi wa Thiong’o, nor, for that matter, the intense mastery of the Nobel-winning Wole Soyinka. It can be argued, however, that like Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tutuola didn’t set out to tell a story like Charles Dickens or George Orwell. But he did tell his story – unbounded, in the Nigerian spirit.
Ruto got some respite from the protests about the cost of living and difficult economic policies on the streets of Nairobi and felt comfortable enough to humour the Kenyan community abroad with a jab at Nigerian English. He later tried to walk it back, but the message had landed.
Who English epp?
While Ruto is browsing Nigerians for translations of English, enterprising Kenyan content creators are online baiting Nigerians for traffic. In fact, if the Kenyan high commissioner in Nigeria is within earshot, he must have overheard countless Nigerians laughing and asking, “Who English epp?”, Nigerian-speak for the vanity of Queen’s English.
Kenyans may speak the best English (which I doubt), but the economic challenges they face, which Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu alluded to and drew the clap back, are real. The problems won’t be solved just because Kenyans speak in or mimic the late Queen Elizabeth’s mellifluous tone and accent.
Ruto and Tinubu must brace for the messy, difficult task of fixing their countries’ economies, a task that is not a respecter of fine language. The Kenyan economy, which is largely driven by tourism and agriculture, only approximates to Nigeria’s South-west region. At $2,132, Kenya’s GDP per capita may look better than Nigeria’s $1,378, but Kenyans are more often in riot mode.
Mother of all protesters
On a state visit to Bayelsa – one of the oil-producing states in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria on April 10, President Tinubu had remarked that despite high fuel prices, which have caused significant economic hardship, Nigerians were still “better off” than citizens in other African countries.
The President was quoted as saying, “Yes, I hear you from various angles of the economy. The fuel price is biting hard, but look around… You are better off. Listen to them in Kenya and other African countries and what they are going through.”
Contextually, the President was not wrong. Perhaps he needed to cite a real, relatable example, and Kenya was handy.
Since September 2022, Kenya has experienced multiple protests and public outrage regarding the cost of living, tax hikes, and fuel costs. There have been at least six protests between 2022 and 2025, with some accounts citing about 246 police killings connected to public demonstrations.
Where the shoe pinches
The ongoing war by the US and Israel on Iran has further spiked global oil prices through supply disruptions, significantly raising Kenya’s fuel import costs and further aggravating living expenses. As a net importer of petroleum products, oil prices surged above 25 percent, pressuring pump prices, weakening the shilling, raising transport and production expenses and food prices.
Inflation rose to 4.4 percent in March 2026 from 4.3 percent exacerbating household strains in an import-reliant economy.
Nigeria faces a situation practically identical to the one Tinubu’s Kenya analogy sought to downplay. It was the equivalent of an errant father telling his wards that he is not the only parent who defaults on school fees. Nigeria is in a very difficult place, and the suffering threshold of its citizens is often the butt of jokes in many circles.
Tinubu’s hook and Ruto’s refrain are making headlines, obviously because they were heard from the top floor. Downstairs, the rest of Africa loves to spar with Nigeria and Nigerians. For fun, for real and often, for just the heck of it.
The matter of size
There is a logical basis to it. One out of every six of the estimated 1.58 billion Africans is a Nigerian. That’s about 15.4 percent of the continent’s population, about 63 percent of which is under the age of 25.
Nigeria’s huge population is about the size of 25 other African countries combined. That’s a demographic variable that comes with inherent advantages and weaknesses. It’s also a variable that makes Nigerians visible on and off the stage.
There’s the regular hee-haw of who has the best jollof rice between Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal. This contest ought to have been resolved when the Guinness World record keepers awarded the chef prize to Nigeria’s Hilda Bassi. Ghanaians, in particular, don’t seem to have heard, seen, or tasted what Nigerians call “party jollof.” They would flood Nigeria on a party pilgrimage if they did.
The Senegalese, the brand owners of jollof, are less vocal about the contest and have, more or less, resigned themselves to watching Nigerians make a greater show of the jollof franchise. Being further to the west coast, and perhaps due to linguistic dissonance, the Senegalese have left the battle for Ghanaians, who are closer neighbours and won’t need “translators” to argue about jollof.
What about the Asian Kenyan variety?
As Kenyans may well know, English, a colonial legacy, is hardly a measure of intelligence or national progress. Otherwise, the British would be the most advanced people on the planet. As former British colonies, both Kenya and Nigeria share English as an official language, but each country has developed distinct spoken varieties with different phonetic structures.
As Ruto might well know, Asian Kenyans who have been in that country since the 1890s don’t quite have the same English accent as native Luo, Kikuyu or Kalenjin speakers.
The linguistic or tonal differences reflect the influence of indigenous languages – Nigeria has more than 500 languages, which shape its cadence and intonation. At the same time, Kenya’s peculiarities also give rise to its own accents and adaptations.
As Nigerian civil rights activist, Shehu Sani, posted on X: “Ruto is mocking the English of the country with a Nobel Prize for literature winner. The nation of Achebe and Chimamanda.”
Sani might have added that in 2025, a 17-year-old Nigerian student, Nafisa Abdullahi, beat over 20,000 competitors from 69 countries (including Kenyan participants) in English language skills at the TeenEagle finals held in London.
We no carry last!
Nigeria has more English speakers than any other country in Africa. Over time, the language has evolved locally into what is often described as “Nigerian English” – a distinct and widely recognised variety shaped by the country’s history, cultures and everyday usage. Nigerian English continues to influence global English, with Nigerian expressions becoming increasingly common.
Kenyans are very likely aware that apart from marathons, steeple chase and the long distance, Naija no dey carry last – a fact known even as far afield as the Buckingham Palace.
The real trouble is that far more than English, the economy is making both Kenyans and Nigerians miss the humour of these presidential jabs. From a shared colonial past, a youthful population, ethnic diversity and entrepreneurial energy to the love of sports and entertainment, there’s far more that binds both countries than linguistic flair.
Tinubu and Ruto should face the economy. That is what bothers citizens!
Na who Queen’s English epp?
Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book, Writing for Media and Monetising It.
