Kemi Badenoch will soon learn her lessons – Akinyemi

Bolaji Akinyemi, a former Nigerian minister of external affairs, says Britain’s Conservative party and Nigeria-raised Kemi Badenoch will soon learn her lessons that you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus.

Akinyemi, a former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), said Badenoch was making a mistake denigrating Nigeria on the global stage to “advance her political career”.

Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday night, the renowned Professor of Political Science said the UK Conservative party leader should leave Nigeria alone and focus on strengthening her party in Britain.

Read also: Kemi Badenoch and the future of the British Conservative Party – between Fárígá and Làákàyè

The octogenarian said, “How the daughter of a professor of UNILAG, her father who was a medical doctor, a girl who went to the international school at UNILAG would make it sound like she was selling groundnut and selling water in Lagos to advance her political career.

“She would soon learn that you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus to advance your career. She is making a mistake but she would soon learn.

“After all, right now, there is even Right Wing political party in the United Kingdom that is even to the right of the Conservative Party. So, what she should be focusing on is how to regain that rightwing profile of the Conservative Party and leave Nigeria alone.”

In 2022, Badenoch, a UK member of parliament of Nigerian descent and then UK Prime Minister hopeful, accused Nigerian politicians of using public funds for their private matters.

After her election as UK Conservative Party leader in November 2024, the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said her office reached out to Badenoch but received no response.