Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, has criticized Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, for her recurring negative remarks about Nigeria. Akinyemi accused Badenoch of leveraging disparaging comments about her homeland to further her political career.
Badenoch has faced widespread criticism in Nigeria over her series of controversial statements about the country. Before assuming leadership of the Conservative Party, she described Nigeria as a socialist nation plagued by corruption and insecurity. She also criticized the Nigerian police and expressed discontent with the poverty she experienced growing up in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital and most populous city.
Recently, Badenoch made further contentious remarks, stating that Nigeria “destroys lives” and emphasizing her determination to prevent Britain from experiencing a similar fate. “And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” she said. “I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation. I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life. So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Akinyemi, speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today,’ questioned Badenoch’s portrayal of her upbringing, highlighting that her father was a medical doctor and a professor at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), and she attended the institution’s international school. “How can the daughter of a professor of UNILAG make it sound like she was selling groundnuts and water in Lagos to advance her political career?” he asked.
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He further criticized her for allegedly sacrificing her heritage to climb the political ladder, stating, “She would soon learn that you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus in order to advance your career. She is making a mistake, but she would soon learn.”
He advised Badenoch to focus on consolidating the Conservative Party’s right-wing profile instead of continuously targeting Nigeria. “After all, right now, there is even a right-wing political party in the United Kingdom that is even to the right of the Conservative Party. So, what she should be focusing on is how to regain that right-wing profile of the Conservative Party and leave Nigeria alone.
