Kemi Badenoch political career may be in danger – Top diplomat

Kemi Badenoch political career may be in danger – Top diplomat

Comments by the Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom (UK), Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch, have sparked controversy in Nigeria with many outraged over the Leader of the Conservative Party statements which many interpreted as unpatriotic while some rose in her defence.

The British-Nigerian politician, who previously served in the UK Cabinet under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak from 2022 to 2024, had made remarks that many Nigerians interpreted as offensive.

She replaced the party’s leader and immediate past UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, after winning 57 per cent of party members’ votes to defeat former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

The election, which saw her emerge as the first Black leader of a UK-wide political party, followed Mr Sunak’s resignation from the position after the party failed in the July general election, which produced Keir Starmer of the Labour Party as the new Prime Minister.

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Her position places her as a potential Prime Minister of the UK.

Speaking with British media recently, Badenoch, who had earlier described her upbringing in Nigeria as being overshadowed by fear and insecurity in a country plagued by corruption, detached herself from Northern Nigeria, which she referred to as a haven for Islamism and Boko Haram.

“I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity [Yoruba],” she said.

“I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where Islamism is.

“Being Yoruba is my true identity, and I refuse to be lumped with northern people of Nigeria, who ‘were our ethnic enemies, all in the name of being called a Nigerian.”

Kemi Badenoch political career may be in danger – Top diplomat