Former Minister of External Affairs, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, has predicted that Nigerian-born UK Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, will soon learn bitter lessons for denigrating her country of birth.
Prof Akinyemi who was reacting to the Tori Leader’s recent demeaning comments on Nigeria, said Badenoch was making a big mistake by denigrating Nigeria on the global stage to advance her political career and would soon learn that she has been making a mistake all along.
Badenoch had once again, entered into the bad books of Nigerians when she warned the British government against descending to a level where it would destroy lives like it is being done by the Nigerian government.
While delivering a speech at an event in the UK, Badenoch had said she did not want Britain to be like a “poor” country like Nigeria where “terrible” leadership has continued to destroy the lives of Nigerians.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation,” she had said, and went on to highlight the importance of building trust, saying the Conservative Party is the right group to fix Britain, emphasizing that if the UK does not make proper reforms, it stands the risk of becoming like Nigeria.
But while speaking on a television programme on Monday night, the former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), advised Badenoch to leave Nigeria alone and focus on strengthening her party in the UK.
“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,” the Political Science professor wondered.
“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,” the octogenarian said.
