One of the two Kemis Nigeria has lost to its former colonial master is Kemi Badenock. The other one is Kemi Adeosun. Remember her? She was a former Commissioner for Finance in Ogun state prior to her elevation to the Minister with the same portfolio in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Her exit was hastened by an NYSC discharge certificate scandal. Badenock, an onomatopoeia for bad enough, is currently the leader of the British opposition party that was recently hurled out the 10 Downing Street.
Kemi Badenock, nee Adegoke, is a Briton, having been born to a medical doctor dad living in London. Ordinarily, we should be celebrating her as one of our own who (has) made us proud. The global stage is replete with Nigerian diasporans who are making waves in countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, etc., in various fields outside politics where Kemi prides herself. You will find them in the academia, science, engineering, medicine, technology, business, sports, arts, name them.
A few instances will suffice here: Barr. Kaycee Madu is a Nigerian-born Canadian with Owerri ancestry. Madu is the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General of Alberta, Canada. He was elected to the position in August 2020. He was previously elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 2019 representing the electoral district of Edmonton-South West.
Adewale Adeyemo became the US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. He was previously the Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council under former President Barack Obama. He was also the first President of the Obama Foundation. He was born in Ibadan but raised in Southern California.
Oye Owolewa was elected as the shadow representative of the US House of Representatives from the District of Columbia in November 2020. The posts of shadow congresspersons are held by elected or appointed government officials from subnational polities of the US, but they lack congressional vote. Owolewa was born in Nigeria to Kwara State father and Osun State mother. He was raised in Boston, Massachusetts.
Osaremen Okolo was appointed as COVID-19 Policy Advisor by outgoing President Joe Biden of the US. Prior to that, she was the Senior Health Policy Advisor at the US House of Representatives. Okolo is an Edolite but was raised in Massachusetts. Okolo also served as the Legislative Aide for Health Policy on the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour, and Pensions for Ranking Member Patty Murray of Washington.
Ernest Ezeajughi became the first black Mayor of London Borough of Brent in the United Kingdom where Kemi is running her acerbic mouth. He was elected councillor for the Stonebridge ward in May 2014 and was re-elected in May 2018. He moved to the UK in 2004 and obtained a Master of Science at Kings College, London.
Chi Onwurah has a Nigerian father and British mother. Onwurah has served as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central in the UK since 2010. On April 9, 2020, she was appointed as shadow minister for Science, Research & Digital. Before then, Onwurah served as shadow minister for Industrial Strategy, Science and Innovation under Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Helen Grant has a Nigerian father and English mother. Grant was appointed as the Special Envoy of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Girls’ Education in January 2021. She was the first black woman of mixed heritage to be elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Maidstone and The Weald. Before then, she served jointly as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities from 2012 to 2015 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice from 2012 to 2013. She was also the Minister for Sport and Tourism from 2013 to 2015.
Abimbola Afolami has been a member of the British Parliament for Hitchin and Harpenden constituency since 2017. He was born in 1986 to Nigerian doctor father and pharmacist mother. Before becoming a Member of Parliament, Afolami worked as a corporate lawyer for multinational law firms, Freshfields and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Kate Osamor is a Nigerian-British politician who had served as Member of Parliament for Edmonton beginning from 2015. In 2014, she was elected a member of the National Executive Committee of the UK Labour Party. She was previously appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development by Jeremy Corbyn in June 2016.
Samuel Ifeanyi “Vop” Osili, Jr is the President of District 11 of the Indianapolis City-County Council in the US. Born in 1963 to a Nigerian father and an American mother, his parents nicknamed him ‘Vop’ (an acronym for Voice of the People) because he was talkathoner as a toddler.
So far, none of the above-listed disaporans have had any cause to bully their ancestral country. But Mrs. Badenock has badly knocked Nigeria down simply because of pervasive insecurity especially in the northern part of the country, culminating in her brother losing his shoes and wristwatch (not his life) to the policeman he encountered here in Nigeria, as she claimed.
Opposition Leader Kemi may have changed her identity (when will she drop Kemi for Camila?), she cannot erase the fact that she was first and foremost a Nigerian before her political apostasy. Neither can she shed the colour of her skin in a country where the blacks are denigrated and tarred as the descendants Satan, and they as angels because they are whites. One glaring feature will haunt her for the rest of her life… being black.
The irony of Kemi’s excoriation of Nigeria is that she once sought the support of her fellow Nigerians in the UK to secure her seat in the parliament in 2010. During her campaign for Dulwich and West Norwood, she reached out to Nigerians while highlighting her roots and swore to uplift the image of the country through her position in the British political system.
Badenoch was quoted as saying, “I need your help; I’m running for parliament in the 2010 UK general elections. The race is very tight. Last year, a survey was carried out in this constituency by the News of the World and the forecast was that I would win. This year, things are a lot tougher as the party has dropped nationally in the polls. I need your help.”
Indeed, politicians speak with the two corners of their mouths. Badenoch, after winning the election, deployed her nasty experiences in Nigeria, as a talking point to rally support for her policies. She was accused of exploiting her roots for political gains. While in the race to succeed former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022, Badenoch lambasted Nigerian politicians for polluting the environment with degradation.
She said, “I grew up in Nigeria, and I saw firsthand what happens when politicians are in it for themselves, when they use public money as their private piggy banks.
“I saw what socialism is for millions. I saw poverty and broken dreams. I came to Britain to make my way in a country where hard work and honest endeavour can take you anywhere.”
Also, in one of the interviews she had with the British media, she said she did not want the UK to experience what made her flee Nigeria.
What I expected Kemi to do was to proffer solutions to the myriad of challenges her ancestral country is currently facing rather than de-market it on the world stage. Every country has its peculiar problems. Just because her brother had a nasty encounter with a police officer does not warrant pigeonholing all policemen in Nigeria as thieves or robbers. There are bad eggs in every profession.
It will interest Kemi that as recently as 2018, it took a survey by the BBC to reveal that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) could boast of an honest officer within the system. A police officer, named Julius Adedeji, was honoured for standing against bribe since he joining the system widely regarded as being irredeemably corrupt.
Adedeji was said to have never taken bribes in his career so far despite the temptations to do so because, according to him, it was needless for him. It was for this rare feat that the BBC decided to celebrate him as Nigeria’s “most dedicated police officer”.
The saint cop told the BBC in an interview that he was surprised to be nominated for the award because he did not know he was being watched.
“I felt so great,” the saintly Adedeji enthused.
What Kemi has done to us can be described as buying a pair of sneakers for her and she has used them not only to knock us down but also kick mud to our faces. I could not find a better way to describe her disposition towards Nigeria.
