Kemi Badenoch stands by Nigeria comments after criticism

Kemi Badenoch is standing by her previous comments about Nigeria after the West African country’s Vice President accused her of defaming Nigeria.

The Conservative Party leader, who was born in Britain but mostly raised in Nigeria, has repeatedly described growing up in fear and insecurity in a country plagued by corruption.

On Tuesday, Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima suggested that Badenoch could “drop Kemi from her name” if she was not proud of her “country of origin”.

Asked about Shettima’s comments, Badenoch’s spokesperson said she “stands by what she says” and is “not PR for Nigeria”.

“She is the leader of the opposition and she is very proud of her leadership of the opposition in this country,” he told reporters.

“She tells the truth. She tells it like it is. She won’t mince words.”

During a speech on migration in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, Shettima said his government was “proud” of Badenoch “despite attempts to denigrate his country of origin”.

Shettima was greeted with applause when she said: “She is entitled to her opinion; she has every right to remove Kemi from her name but that does not underline the fact that Nigeria, the largest black nation on earth There is a nation called.

He compared Badenoch’s approach to that of his predecessor, Britain’s first Indian-born Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was “a brilliant young man” who “never denigrated the nation of his lineage”.

It is unclear which comment Setima was referring to, but Badenoch has frequently referred to his Nigerian upbringing in speeches and interviews.

Born in Wimbledon in 1980, Olukemi Adegoke was raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and the United States, where her physiology professor mother lectured.

She returned to the UK at the age of 16 due to the deteriorating political and economic situation in Nigeria to live with a friend of her mother’s and study for A-levels.

After marrying Scottish banker Hamish Badenoch, she adopted her husband’s surname.

At this year’s Conservative Party conference, Badenoch compared the freedom he experienced in Britain to his childhood in Lagos “where there was fear everywhere”.

He apparently described the city as lawless, and recalled that “neighbors screamed because they were being robbed and beaten – and wondering whether the next house would be yours or not”.

During a visit to the US last week he described his hometown as “a place where almost everything seemed broken”.

His experiences, he said, helped shape his conservative ideals and turned him against socialism.