Badenoch replies Shettima over call to drop Nigerian name

Kemi Badenoch, the UK-born Conservative Party leader, has replied Vice President, Kashim Shettima over call to drop her Nigerian name.

During a visit to the United States, Badenoch had described Nigeria as “a place where almost everything seemed broken.”

She added that there are instability and corruption in Nigeria, prompting the vice president to describe her comment as disrespectful.

Shettima had during a speech on migration in Abuja said that Badenoch might “remove the Kemi from her name if she did not feel pride in her “nation of origin.”

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Comparing Badenoch with the UK’s first prime minister of Indian descent, Shettima added that Rishi Sunak, “never denigrated his nation of ancestry.”

But in a reply to the vice president, a spokesperson for Badenoch said that she “stands by what she says” and emphasized that “she is not Nigeria’s public relations representative.”

“She leads the opposition and takes great pride in her role in this country; she speaks the truth, and she presents things as they are and will not soften her words,” he told reporters.