Former Nigerian Minister of External Affairs, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, says Britain’s Conservative party and Nigeria-raised Kemi Badenoch will soon learn her lessons that “you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus”.
Prof Akinyemi, a former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), said Badenoch was making a mistake denigrating Nigeria on the global stage to “advance her political career”.
The octogenarian said, “How the daughter of a professor of UNILAG, her father who was a medical doctor, a girl who went to the international school at UNILAG would make it sound like she was selling groundnut and selling water in Lagos to advance her political career.
“She would soon learn that you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus to advance your career. She is making a mistake but she would soon learn.
“After all, right now, there is even Right Wing political party in the United Kingdom that is even to the right of the Conservative Party. So, what she should be focusing on is how to regain that rightwing profile of the Conservative Party and leave Nigeria alone.”
In 2022, Badenoch, a UK member of parliament of Nigerian descent and then UK Prime Minister hopeful, accused Nigerian politicians of using public funds for their private matters.
After her election as UK Conservative Party leader in November 2024, the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said her office reached out to Badenoch but received no response.
