Critical discussions are brewing over the controversial statements made by the leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, about her identity and Nigeria. In time like this one would expect Kemi Badenoch to join hands in redeeming the country’s image rather than dropping clangers.
As part of the image-laundering by Nigerian leaders, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, during his tenure, created an advert in a billboard which urged Nigerians not to ‘badmouth Nigeria; things will get better’. Musician Tony Tetula released an album in 2004 that echoed a related tune until Eedris Abdulkareem came up with a rather discordant note in the same year. But has Nigeria fared better since then?
The radical reforms introduced by Kemi Badenoch into British government since she assumed leadership role and the in-your-face diatribes she launched against Nigeria have earned her name-calling. In my opinion, Kemi Badenoch is neither a liar nor a racist, but a xenophile who knows the consequences that await anyone who bites the hand that feeds them.
A racist treats other peoples of different race unjustly and believes that his or her race is superior to others’. A racist person hates your guts, discriminates against you in job and in everything; he or she dehumanises and reduces you to ‘nobodiness’, whilst a xenophile loves everything about foreigners, develops positive attitudes towards people and strives to learn about new experiences. A liar, as we know, says untrue things that can even anger the dead.
Kemi Badenoch’s assertion that she’s not really Nigerian by identity but British and that she once went to a prison-like school in Ogun State, was borne out of truth and xenophilia. A couple of reasons can be given for her assertion. First, her long stay in Britain has radicalised her worldview having immersed herself in British culture and been used to its eccentricities.
Second, the magnitude of corruption, decadence and leadership failure she has seen ‘somewhere’ is absent in her current geographical location. In addition, her being British means that she is fortunate and excited to be a leader in a country where workers are adequately rewarded for work done and where the leaders prioritise the welfare and needs of the led.
Third and more importantly, Kemi Badenoch’s being British is another way of saying that she lives in a society free of bandits and where kidnappers don’t truncate travellers’ lives and abort their journeys, and hold people to ransom. Being British means that she enjoys a society where schools are not like prisons and prisons not like hells. Her present environment is one in which the police don’t steal from civilians, where criminals are not enlisted in the police and where ‘terrible governments’ don’t exist.
Of course, the same better opportunities she enjoys in Britain are also enjoyed in Nigeria. ‘Our police don’t steal from people’ neither do they ‘take bribes from motorists’. Our country is ‘devoid of bandits and kidnappers’. Our schools, most especially federal universities, are of state-of-the-art and ‘not over-congested’.
Undoubtedly, if Kemi Badenoch’s vision for Nigeria actually materialised, she wouldn’t have dissociated herself from anything Nigerian. Imagine after having left the country for Britain at age sixteen in 1996 with just £100, the country has yet to normalise, defeat corruption and end electoral fraud. Worse still, sustainable healthcare delivery and reliable electricity supply have remained will-o’ the-wisp.
Implicit in Kemi Badenoch’s tantrums is that she will return to Lagos State to live permanently if our police are well remunerated and the canteen culture within the force is eradicated, if the Federal Government is sincere about fighting corruption and if the funds stolen by politicians are recovered and injected into the economy for the betterment of the lives of the citizens.
Recently in Lagos State, a female NYSC member and social media influencer was arrested and detained for describing Lagos State as ‘smelly,’ whereas the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Kenyamo, talked about the ‘dilapidated state of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA)’ (see N712bn MMIA upgrade: FG explains execution plan, The PUNCH, 6 August 2025).
Inasmuch as Nigerians are aware of the problems confronting them, it is their duty to cry out for help and never let the true state of affairs be politicised nor the truth be distorted. Thus, each time disillusioned and patriotic Nigerians come forward to speak the truth, they should be taken seriously and never be branded liars. It is not the best for those in authority to pretend that everything is OK in Nigeria; they’ve got to proffer immediate solutions.
Critics are quick to misinterpret Kemi Badenoch’s statements. She had not at any time used the pervasive ills in Nigeria as a rallying cry for votes for the position of Parliament in the 2010 UK general elections for Dulwich and West Norwood, contrary to the views touted by her critics. She appealed to the Nigerians like her living in the UK: ‘There are just about 20 days to go before polling day, and Nigerians have been fantastic. My immediate circle of friends, ex-schoolmates, their friends, and our families have really rallied around and been supportive’.
On her identity, she pointed out some grim aspects of the faulty system here at home, which she cannot be part of. According to her, ‘Being Yoruba is my true identity, and I refuse to be lumped with Northern people of Nigeria, … where Boko Haram and Islamism is’. The two cannot walk together except they agree, says Amos 3:3. So, no matter how veiled or deautomatised her language is, Kemi Badenoch means no harm.
The Tory leader exemplifies a courageous woman who has learnt fantastic new cultures and is proud to say that a single leader in Britain, guided by conscience, considers it demonic and insane to own 750 duplexes in a lifetime. She has seen that, for accountability’s sake, public office holders in Britain don’t pocket the funds meant for vulnerable citizens.
In conclusion, Kemi Badenoch should be celebrated for being patriotic and coming forward with the truth. Her tight noose around the necks of Nigerians who are studying and working in the United Kingdom is a strategy to keep Nigerian leaders on their toes and force them to fix the problems in their country. Not only is Kemi Badenoch a true-blue Tory, she is a truth lover who has told her story out of the genuine love she has for British culture. But I hope she knows that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Sola wrote from Port Harcourt
