NIGERIANS 'RELUCTANT' TO CLAIM KEMI BADENOCH

In an exclusive interview with the UK’s Daily Mail published 22 October 2024, newly-elected Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said her experiences in Nigeria, where she ‘didn’t feel safe,’ have informed her political views and that she does not ‘want [the UK] to become like the place [she] ran away from.’ 

The Nigerian experiences that the 44-year-old has recounted have led some to question if she is trying to deploy negative stereotypes about Africans to pander to the far right.

Perhaps that’s why, in this clip, Nigeria’s Arise News co-host Steve Ayorinde (@stevoree on X) said he is ‘reluctant’ to claim Badenoch for her criticisms of his home country.

Like Nigeria, the UK has its challenges with systemic issues, such as racist policies that make Black people and others feel unsafe, as well as economic mismanagement. Its leaders accuse others of corruption, yet the difference between the UK and the Global South, is that its corruption—and that of its Western allies—is tactfully concealed in veneers of civility.

Further, while Badenoch benefits from UK citizenship, she promotes policies that deny that opportunity to Black and Brown immigrants while welcoming Ukrainian immigrants. She has argued that all cultures are not equal and that ‘British values’ must be protected from anti-Israel immigrants.

‘I would go to war for this country,’ Badenoch has said. ‘I would fight for this country. I would die for this country.’

Video credits: Arise News (@arisetv on X)

Sources:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/09/28/kemi-badenoch-migrants-britain-tradition/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13989069/Kemi-Badenoch-Labour-Britains-past-Tory-leadership.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28iSPK_X0ok

https://www.kemibadenoch.org.uk/news/kemis-column-statement-ukraine

https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/britains-conservative-leader-kemi-badenoch-born-uk-contrary-claims-2024-11-25/