UK’s Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has doubled down on her harsh comments about Nigeria despite being called out by the West African nation’s vice president. Per BBC, the 44-year-old British politician was born in the United Kingdom but spent much of her childhood in Nigeria.
Badenoch, whose maiden name is Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke, has previously spoken about her experiences in Nigeria. She said that she lived in fear during a period when the country faced security issues and was embroiled in corruption.
But Nigerian Vice-President Kashim Shettima criticized her while delivering a speech about migration on Monday. Shettima in his speech implied that Badenoch had the right to “remove the Kemi from her name” if she did not want to associate herself with her “nation of origin.”
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Badenoch’s spokesman, however, said she “stands by what she says” and “is not the PR for Nigeria” when he was asked about Shettima’s criticism of her.
“She is the leader of the opposition and she is very proud of her leadership of the opposition in this country,” he added. “She tells the truth. She tells it like it is. She is not going to couch her words.”
Shettima in his speech said that they were “proud” of Badenoch “despite her efforts at denigrating the nation of her origin.” “She is entitled to her own opinions; she has even every right to remove the Kemi from her name but that does not underscore the fact that the greatest black nation on earth is the nation called Nigeria,” he added before the audience applauded.
Shettima also made mention of the Conservative Party’s former leader Rishi Sunak, who made history as UK’s first Prime Minister of Indian heritage, BBC reported. Shettima described Sunak as “a brilliant young man” who “never denigrated his nation of ancestry.”
Though the comments Shettima was responding to could not be pin-pointed, Badenoch has occasionally spoken about her childhood experiences in Nigeria. The 44-year-old was born in the United Kingdom but spent most of her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria and the United States.
However, the volatile political and economic climate in Nigeria caused her to go back to the United Kingdom where she furthered her education. “I grew up in Nigeria and I saw first-hand what happens when politicians are in it for themselves, when they use public money as their private piggy banks, when they promise the earth and pollute not just the air but the whole political atmosphere with their failure to serve others,” she said during her unsuccessful campaign to become the Conservative Party’s leader in 2022, The Independent reported.
“I saw what socialism is for millions. It’s poverty and broken dreams. I came to Britain to make my way in a country where hard work and honest endeavour can take you anywhere.”
Badenoch also touched on her home city during her US tour last week, saying that Lagos was “a place where almost everything seemed broken.” She said what she lived through was the diving force behind her political ideology.
