Kemi Badenoch, a former British parliament member currently vying for the leadership of the UK’s Conservative party has asserted that her Nigerian roots do not disqualify her from running for office.
The Tory leadership candidate expressed confidence in her qualifications and told Sky News on Sunday that growing up in Nigeria does not make her “too Nigerian” to contest, striking a comparison with politics in Nigeria which she describes as “too brutal.”
Badenoch, who was born to Nigerian parents, lived in Nigeria and the United States where her mother lectured as a professor of physiology until age 16, when her family fully returned to the UK. By age 25, Badenoch had started her political career as a member of the Conservative party and in 2010, at 30, contested for her first electoral position in her constituency. However, has been mostly unsuccessful in securing leadership roles within the party.
“Nigerians tell me that I am too British. I am just Kemi, really. I am something that is just different and unique and that is why I stand out in this contest,” she said.
Part of Badenoch’s campaign focus this year is immigration which she shares strong opinions about. Writing in the Telegraph, she called for a better “integration strategy” that emphasises British values and culture, pointing to her own background.
“Culture is more than cuisine or clothes. It’s also customs which may be at odds with British values, she wrote. “We cannot be naive and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not.”
In her campaign, Badenoch offers an iron fist approach to the immigration debate, indicating an intention to continue with the policies implemented during Rishi Sunak’s regime that restricted visa benefits to cut migration numbers.
For years, UK citizens have pinned unaffordable and inaccessible housing and jobs on an immigration surge.
“A country belongs to its citizens. It is nothing without them. We cannot treat their needs or concerns as secondary or inconvenient or of a lower priority than anyone else. People should not be made to feel guilty for questioning levels of immigration legal or illegal if it is changing the place they know and love,” she stated at the campaign launch.
During her tenure as the UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Badenoch made visits to Nigeria that included the signing of an enhanced trade and investment partnership to improve bilateral trade post-Brexit.
