Kenyan President William Ruto has clarified his earlier remarks about Nigerian English, saying Nigerians actually speak “excellent English” and insisting his comments were misunderstood and taken out of context.
He made the clarification at a forum in Kenya on responsible mining and sustainable investment in Africa, where Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, was also in attendance.
Ruto used the opportunity to greet President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nigerians, whom he described as his “in-laws,” while explaining that a private conversation he had earlier was mistakenly made public and misrepresented.
He said his original comment was meant as a general observation about English usage across Africa, adding that many African countries, including Nigeria, demonstrate a high standard of English communication.
According to him, the comparison was distorted and wrongly framed as criticism, stressing that it should not have been taken out of context.
Ruto said: “Please pass my regards, to President Tinubu, my friend, and to the great people of Nigeria, who are my in-laws, and do so in good English. And, you know, I was captured, I was speaking to my fellow citizens somewhere, and somebody, it was supposed to be a private conversation, but somebody decided that it should be public. But they also misrepresented the facts.
“The facts are that I was talking about how we in Africa speak very good English, all of us. In fact, in some countries like Nigeria, if you don’t speak excellent English, like the one we speak in Kenya, you may need a translator, you know, for you to understand the excellent English of Nigeria. So that was the comparison, but somebody decided to take it out of context.
“But I think it is as well that we can have this conversation. And my in-laws, I hope there will be no consequences for whatever was done.”
