UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has defended her past remarks about Nigeria following criticism from Nigerian Vice-President Kashim Shettima.
Badenoch, born in the UK but largely raised in Nigeria, has often spoken about her experiences growing up in a country she described as rife with corruption and insecurity.
In a speech on Monday, Shettima accused Badenoch of denigrating her “nation of origin” and suggested she could “remove the Kemi from her name” if she was ashamed of her Nigerian roots.
When asked about Shettima’s remarks, a spokesman for Badenoch stated that she “stands by what she says” and emphasised that she is “not the PR for Nigeria.” The spokesman added, “She tells the truth. She tells it like it is. She is not going to couch her words.”
Speaking in Abuja, Shettima expressed pride in Badenoch’s achievements despite her perceived criticisms of Nigeria. He remarked, “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.”
Shettima compared Badenoch’s rhetoric to that of Rishi Sunak, the UK’s first prime minister of Indian descent, who, he claimed, “never denigrated his nation of ancestry.”
Badenoch, born Olukemi Adegoke in Wimbledon in 1980, spent much of her childhood in Lagos before moving to the United States, where her mother lectured in physiology. She returned to the UK at age 16 to escape Nigeria’s political and economic instability and to pursue her education.
Now married to Scottish banker Hamish Badenoch, she has frequently drawn contrasts between life in Nigeria and the opportunities she found in the UK. At this year’s Conservative Party conference, Badenoch recalled growing up in Lagos, a place she described as “lawless,” where she heard “neighbours scream as they are being burgled and beaten.”
