This is not a piece of condemnation, but of gentle caution and reflection. One of the natural features of politics is the criticism of political actors who sit in government, as they act on the people’s behalf and thus owe their legitimacy to the people. Uneasy will always be the head that bears the crown of governance, for criticism will always be a part of the people’s rights as citizens and the refiner of leadership when rightly made. Now criticisms can be fair and unfair, right and wrong, humane or simply mean and immorally demeaning to the political agent.

Therefore, I should like to begin by first acknowledging the complexity of position that governance makes of political agents, and how much sacrifice many great leaders must make in the course of service to their communities and nations. Some leaders never receive honour until after they leave service, or sadly, until after leaving our fragile human world.

Nations might fail to remember, but the historians bear the call to create the means through which we reflect on and remember the actions and decisions of political actors. The historian also has another call: to subtly nudge society and leaders towards the direction of truth; to call people to the right, to help them see where their senses of judgement and justice are flawed; to remind them that history never forgets.

Kemi Badenoch has come up a few times in my thoughts over the last months. It is admirable how far she has come in British politics. I share a few points of connection with her: we grew up in Lagos Nigeria, both attended International School, University of Lagos and lived on the University campus (about a generation apart), and we have become a part of the diasporic community of dear Nigeria. I will not pretend like our experiences have been the same, neither shall I perform a righteousness of unblemished patriotism. I write this both bearing our shared experiences in mind, and as a historian.Very importantly, I come here with a reminder that all history is built on memory: each actor and action will be remembered.

I have watched Kemi Badenoch speak, and I have found in her a politician who appears to be playing a politics of crutches. For the injured, crutches allow you a means to gain your freedom without bearing the continuous, flinching pain of dragging along a wounded or broken bone. For the political actor, the crutch is presented to get sympathy, approval, or legitimacy, such that the centre of their politics is muddled with sensational rhetoric.

When this becomes the case, the political actor strings the hearts of the citizens to favour them because of their crutch, and not simply because of their objective ideas and politics. Now, a crutch could simply help the politician, or it could simultaneously lift the political actor up while also making something else the collateral damage or scape goat. Sometimes, the crutch is unconsciously held or presented. At other times, however, the crutch is intentionally and strategically selected to perform their politics.

In Ms Badenoch’s case, I fear that her crutch is Nigeria, and specifically, what appears as a performance of an exaggerated denunciation of the country. We respect leaders who lead with inspired hearts and a sense of justice. And true inspiration is selfless, honest, and unexaggerated. Otherwise, it simply becomes a performance of politics without truth, of leadership without sincerity, of identity without integrity. This is the politics of crutches, and what I appeal to Ms Badenochto be conscious against.

Badenoch is British, and she has been in the UK longer than she ever spent in Nigeria. When we speak of her as a leader, and indeed as an everyday fellow human, it is only fair that we recognise and accept this fact for her: that she is British, and has lived outside of Nigeria most of her life. Her life therefore brings into view the intersections between identity, nationality and patriotism.

It is possible for a person to be simultaneously two things, possessing two different identities (or more). In this simultaneity also comes the possibility of speaking to two separate worlds, and a sense of carrying the relics of both worlds. In Kemi Badenoch’s case, it is acceptable to identify as non-Nigerian and fully British. With this, I pray, should also come integrity and propriety, and the reminder that history listens and never forgets.

Integrity means to build up without having to tear others down, to be patriotic without using a quickness to condemn another nation as the proof of patriotism, and surely to speak truth without bias or prejudice.

Some ask, “Is Kemi wrong in what she says about Nigeria though?” She is mostly not wrong. Nigeria has (had) its fair share of chaos. It is not out of place to speak against the ills of the nation, therefore. I for one am utterly displeased with the state of the economy and our leadership today.

The problem, however, is in again the politics of crutches, the mannerism in how Ms Badenoch approaches critiquing Nigeria, and the feline motivations behind this persistent condemnation.

Furthermore, the UK is not Nigeria’s enemy, and politics should be played without pithing both countries and the people against each other. I fear that Ms Badenoch might be telling the seeing eyes and perceptive minds that she roots her sense of service and leadership for England within her ability to unreservedly condemn Nigeria, and to seek every opportunity to do so even unprovoked, unwarranted, or unfairly. Similarly, I have found her comments that suggest reparation as a ‘scam’ very dismissive and disturbing, for example. So also have I found her implicit call for us to celebrate British imperialism prickly.

I beseech her to look more closely at the politics she offers and the meanings it brings. To lead or serve by continuous condemnation – this is not integrity; it becomes simply the grandstanding political performance of crutches. I would like to think Ms Badenoch a respectable member of society and the political class, who cares about integrity and service in place of division, and therefore would find value in pausing to reflect on her political demeanour.
History will remember each actor by their words, decisions, and actions. It is this I invite Ms Badenoch to never forget.
Nkem-Onyekpe can be reached via: [email protected]