Mrs Olukemi Badenoch (nee Adegoke), the British politician of Nigerian descent and leader of His Majesty’s opposition, the Conservative Party of Britain or the Tories as they are more commonly called, has an attitude problem.
From her statements and actions, she comes through as someone battling with internal demons leading to a crisis of identity, inferiority, cultural orientation, knowledge and education, and above all manners and etiquette.
When she was in the fringes of the Tory party, which she now leads, very few knew or particularly cared less about her and her views. But following her election as leader of the Tories in the aftermath of the crushing defeat it suffered in the last general election in Britain, Badenoch suddenly came to public attention and with that her profile began to manifest.
Since becoming leader of the opposition Tories, Mrs Badenoch’s political statements and conduct have marked her out as an impulsive person with a propensity to speak before weighing what she has to say.
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On her first Prime Minister’s Question (PMQ) time in the House of Commons, she made what amounted to a faux pas by claiming that the ruling Labour Party made no provisions for the Ministry of Defence in the budget. For this foot-in-the-mouth indiscretion she was absolutely mauled by Prime Minister Keir Starmer who provided figures to prove convincingly that that was not the case to the obvious embarrassment of Tory party grandees.
On yet another PMQ, she again sought to condemn the government for not making provisions for British agriculture. Again Badenoch was shamed when the Prime Minister debunked her claims with facts and figures.
But it is on the subject matter of Nigeria that Mrs Badenoch’s erratic nature comes clear. On this score, Badenoch has serially demonstrated a disgraceful and unbelievable lack of etiquette unbecoming of the daughter of a prominent Nigerian and the office she presently occupies in Britain.
When Hon. Abike Dabiri, a prominent Nigerian personality and CEO of the Diaspora Commission politely wrote to congratulate Badenoch on her election as Tory leader, she wrote back in a contemptuous manner saying rudely she had no time for Nigeria. On another occasion, she denigrated Nigeria, the land of her forebears by saying that she was glad to have escaped childhood in a land where she witnessed the horrors of daily living where “lizards flowed from water pumps”.
Just of recent, following her constant diatribes against Nigeria, an exasperated Vice President Kashim Shettima asked her to consider dropping the very Yoruba-Nigerian name of Olukemi if what she could only think and say of the country are negative things. And her caustic reply was that she was not contemplating doing a public relations job for Nigeria and that the country was full of thieving and corrupt leaders.
The unkindest cut of all was her statement that she did not share any link with the northern part of Nigeria where the VP came from, which was a haven for “Boko Haram terrorists”. She said she could recognise and identify only with the Yoruba ethnic group, which she originated from, among the multitude of ethnic groups that form part of the country. For somebody who is a beneficiary of the multicultural outlook of a country like Britain, which she hopes to lead in the future, such in-your-face provincialism is ironic and beggars belief.
I think Mrs Badenoch should be told in clear and unmistakable terms that her slagging of Nigerians and Nigeria will not be further tolerated. She had made her choice willingly to take up British citizenship where she was born, and so she must stick to doing what the Conservative Party of Britain elected her to do for her fellow British compatriots. She has no legal and moral entitlement to magisterially comment on issues on Nigeria since she is not a citizen of the country.
Yes, a lot of what she says about Nigeria are true but having turned tail from the land of her parents, she should leave it to Nigerians who have decided to brave the odds she spoke about to fight for a better Nigeria, of which Britain, whose citizenship she waves at our face, is vicariously culprit in bringing about. Her strident condemnation of Nigeria and Nigerians smacks of a gratuitous and condescending busybody involvement in a matter that she has no truck about.
And going further, having decided without being solicited to get involved in the subject of Nigeria of which she has clearly demonstrated a lack of depth and which is not her brief as Tory party leader, it behooves to lay bare to the public and correct the gaps she presented in her silly statements about the country.
Badenoch claims with an air of exaggerated pride and confidence about her Yorubaness. But a true Yoruba “Omuluabi” will not by any stretch of the imagination disrespect her elders as she has done to Hon. Abike Dabiri or for that matter the VP of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima. Respect for elders is a key pillar on which Yoruba culture and tradition is built, and for Badenoch to show such disrespect to Hon. Dabiri and Shettima clearly knocks off her claim of Yorubaness.
Indeed I cannot think of any white Briton who will treat Nigerian leaders with such condescension. It also smacks of inferiority complex on her path to caustically denigrate the congratulatory message she received from Nigeria while fawningly lapping up similar messages from such leaders as Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. By her abrasive utterances she had sought to bring undue opprobrium to the highly venerated Yoruba race who place great value in reverence to elders.
I know of Yoruba persons who have graduated with distinction from Oxbridge institutions in Britain and Ivy League universities in America who had acquired citizenships and are doing very well in their professions, who had gone full stretch “dobale” in designer wears to greet elders back home here.
With all these unforced public errors of Mrs Badenoch, I pity the firm or persons who handle her public image brief. And if Badenoch herself carries such a public relations baggage, it will amount to overstretching her importance and relevance to expect that a country like Nigeria would engage for PR purposes.
The Conservative Party of Britain should begin to assess whether it is worth having such an erratic personality continue as its leader. People like former Premier of Britain Sir John Major who once worked in Jos, Nigeria and many others like him in Britain who still retain fond memories of Nigeria would certainly cringe anytime Badenoch engages in slanging the country. If she continues in this trajectory, at some point as happened to the late Premier Margaret Thatcher (who incidentally is Badenoch’s hero), some “men in grey suits” would come to have a quiet word with her and politely but firmly remind her that bad-mouthing Nigeria is not part of the brief of getting the Tories back to No 10 Downing street. If she fails to heed the admonition, they will trigger a leadership challenge that will sweep her out of the leadership of the party as happened to her idol Thatcher.
Years back some of us who had opportunities on a platter to acquire foreign citizenship spurned it and elected to come back home to mother Nigeria and slug it out. Kemi Badenoch who was partly raised in Nigeria but elected to “japa” to Britain should not use Nigeria to “catch cruise” in order to seek validation from her “oyinbo” constituents. She should work for them and leave us alone. Her unsolicited statements on Nigeria amount to gratuitous insolence and we are not impressed.
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