KEY POINTS
- Professor Bolaji Akinyemi confronts Kemi Badenoch for getting her facts wrong about her Nigerian roots.
- People got upset when Kemi Badenoch spoke ill of Nigeria because she seemed to be rejecting her own cultural roots.
- Before commenting on Nigeria’s politics, Akinyemi tells Badenoch to concentrate on UK political matters.
Nigeria’s former Foreign Affairs Minister Bolaji Akinyemi criticized UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch over her frequent negative comments about Nigeria.
The leader of Britain’s Conservative Party has faced criticism for damaging her political prospects by saying bad things about Nigeria, where she came from.
Badenoch keeps saying how bad she thinks Nigeria is, even after calling it a corrupt and insecure country. She promised she would make sure that never happens to the UK by saying, “This can’t happen again in our country.”
Akinyemi calls for reflection
Prof. Akinyemi showed why Badenoch’s story doesn’t match up. He noted that as a professor’s daughter and a doctor’s child, she grew up in an upper-class area of Lagos.
He asks, “How can someone from her high class upbringing claim to have sold things in Lagos to make political gains?” When he visited Channels Television, Akinyemi publicly shared his view.
Prof Akinyemi said that Badenoch’s words not only failed to show what her Nigerian upbringing means but also made her connect to her origins weaker. She’ll find out people don’t sacrifice their own culture for work progress, he said.
The politician said Badenoch should tackle issues affecting her party at home first before blaming problems on Nigeria.
