Kemi Badenoch has defended her previous statements regarding Nigeria after the country’s vice president accused her of insulting it.
The leader of the Conservative Party, who was born in the UK but spent much of her childhood in Nigeria, has consistently recounted her experiences of living in fear and instability in a nation burdened by corruption.
On Monday, Nigeria’s Vice-President Kashim Shettima proposed that Badenoch might “remove the Kemi from her name” if she did not feel pride in her “nation of origin.”
When asked about Shettima’s remarks, Badenoch’s spokesperson said she “stands by what she says” and “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.
During a speech on migration in the capital city of Abuja, Shettima said that his administration was “proud” of Badenoch “despite her attempts to denigrate her country of origin.”
He likened Badenoch’s stance to that of her predecessor, Rishi Sunak—the first UK Prime Minister of Indian descent—who he described as “a brilliant young man” who “never denigrated his nation of ancestry.”
Born Olukemi Adegoke in Wimbledon in 1980, she was raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and later in the United States, where her mother worked as a physiology professor. She returned to the UK at 16 to reside with a friend of her mother’s due to Nigeria’s deteriorating political and economic conditions and to pursue her A-levels.
After marrying Scottish banker Hamish Badenoch, she adopted her husband’s surname. At the Conservative Party conference earlier this year, Badenoch contrasted the freedoms she experienced in the UK with her childhood in Lagos, “where fear was everywhere.”
Last week, during a visit to the US, she described her hometown as “a place where almost everything seemed broken.” Her experiences played a significant role in shaping her conservative beliefs and positioning her against socialism, she said.
