By Abiola Olawale
Vice-President of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima has criticized the leader of United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, for allegedly denigrating Nigeria.
The New Diplomat reports that Badenoch was born in the UK in 1980 to Nigerian parents of Yoruba extraction. She returned to Nigeria, where she grew up. Badenoch finally departed for the UK when she turned 16.
She became the leader of the Conservative Party on November 2, 2024.
It would be recalled that the chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, had revealed that Badenoch failed to acknowledge all messages sent to her by the agency.
Dabiri-Erewa had said NIDCOM reached out to Badenoch on several occasions but is yet to get a response from the Nigerian-British politician.
The Chairman of NIDCOM also accused Badenoch of showing no interest in identifying with her Nigerian roots.
Also, before she was elected leader of the Conservative Party, Badenoch had described Nigeria as a nation brimming with thieving politicians and insecurity.
She had said: “This is my country. I don’t want it to become like the place I ran away from.
“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 pollute the whole political atmosphere with their failure to serve others.
“I saw what socialism is for millions. I saw 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.”
However, in his address during the 10th Annual Migration Dialogue at the State House in Abuja, Shettima pointed out that a former Prime minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak, never denigrated his country of origin, India, despite leading a British government.
Shettima said: “Rishi Sunak, the former British prime minister, originally from India, a very brilliant young man… he never denigrated his nation of ancestry nor poured venoms on India.
“Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the British Labour or Conservative Party. We are proud of her despite her efforts at denigrating her nation of 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.
“One out of every three, four black men is a Nigerian and by 2050, Nigeria will surpass the United States, will be the third most populous nation on earth.”
