Now that the storm over a recent comment by Kemi Badenoch, the British Conservative Party leader of Nigerian descent, has lost much steam, it is time to critique the entire episode.
Let me start with Abike Dabiri-Erewa who started the fireworks.

According to the story, Abike had reached out to celebrate Kemi, as she usually does to Nigerian Diaspora achievers, on her landmark election to the Conservative party's leadership. But her goodwill gesture was ignored, and unrequited. She had disclosed this during an interview that unleashed a lynch mob on Kemi.

The question arises: Why was it difficult for Abike to make the information public instead of projecting Kemi as slighting and denigrating Nigeria? I see an ego factor here.

Abike, a three-term Federal House of Representatives member and CEO of Nigeria Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) felt miffed that a younger person could show her such disrespect and wanted to get her pound of flesh, hence the negative portrayal of the British politician. That was an error of judgement. Had Abike demonstrated the maturity of her age, she would have tempered her apparent anger, knowing there could be other occasions of interaction, and the subject of her angst might even offer an apology. But her bruised ego and a sense of self-importance got in the way. So, 62-year-old Abike Kafayat Dabiri-Erewa, in an apparent vengeful fit, felt she must gaslight her ‘aburo’ (‘younger sister ‘), 44-year-old Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch, who she must have considered an effete snob, to teach her a lesson!

The lynch mob was unsparing, and Kemi Badenoch responded in kind, leading to brickbats. The critics denounced her for the alleged denigration of Nigeria, the country of her ancestry. An angry Kemi shot back that she was not interested in identifying with the corruption-ridden Nigerian state, hobbled by Boko haram insurgency, banditry and Islamic fanaticism, but rather with her Yoruba ethnic nativity. She would not want to be lumped with the northern part of the country which she considered an enemy to her Yoruba people. Her spokesman said she was not inclined to do public relations for Nigeria.

Kemi’s unrepentant stand incensed the critics. One of the first to jump into the fray was Femi Fani-Kayode, the loquacious ex-aviation minister during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, who in his characteristic vitriolic use of language poured venom on Kemi. Fani-Kayode, we all know, thrives on inserting himself into every controversy, apparently to retain visibility in the public arena. He is often precipitated in his interventions to steal the limelight. I concede that Fani-Kayode occasionally makes articulate public presentations, but his lengthy Kemi bashing was one of his many intemperate, vituperative inanities.

Prof. Ishaq Akintola, executive director of Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) became a police apologist, blasting Kemi for projecting the Nigeria Police as corrupt, contending that policemen stealing Kemi's brother’s shoes could not justify such generalisation. Do you mean it, Prof.? This is playing the ostrich, given documented evidence of not only police extortion and brutality but killings from ‘accidental discharge’ and deaths of suspects in police detention.

A most recent example was in central Kwara State, where rogue policemen, in mid-December 2024, detained a debtor to a brother of one of their colleagues and the man ended up dead in police custody.
Kehinde Yusuf described Kemi Badenoch “elenu razor’’ (A razor-sharp-tongued person) for her outspokenness, pointing out that ‘’with immensely astounding attributes which are undermined by equally fundamental flaws’’, she has ‘’the making of a tragic hero’’. That is morbid negativism.

Enter the big masquerade into the Kemi bashing arena - the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Kashim Shettima. While performing an official function on migration in Abuja, Senator Shettima could not resist the temptation of joining the fray. Displaying an expansive mood, as shown on TVC News, the vice president praised former British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, as a “very brilliant young man” who was ‘’originally from India’’, for not denigrating his country of origin. Wrong, Mr. Vice President. Rishi was born in the UK, but the words “originally from India’’ implied he was born in India and migrated to the UK.

Secondly, unlike Kemi who lived in Nigeria in her formative years, Rishi never lived in India, so, there is no basis for comparison. Rishi Sunak’s father was born in Kenya to Indian migrants, highlighting his generational distance from India. Describing Rishi as “very brilliant’’ was also meant as a put-down on Kemi. But pray what is “very brilliant” about a Prime Minister who led his party to its worst electoral defeat? Using such a superlative word that is not evidence-backed is spurious.
Shettima was also apparently, confused about which political party Kemi Badenoch is a leader. He had stated on live TV: Mrs Kemi Badenoch, the leader of British Labour, Conservative party …! This is the kind of embarrassing gaffe that happens when someone jumps, precipitately, into a fray.

The clincher was Vice President Shettima telling Kemi Badenoch that she could “remove the Kemi from her name if she does not identify with Nigeria.”

Kemi is a Yoruba name, her ethnic group, which she reveres and proudly identifies with, so Vice President Shettima asking her to jettison the name was gratuitous and illogical advice.
Kemi had distanced herself from Northern Nigeria as having nothing in common with her Yoruba people. That was a bit of an exaggeration. We may also ask: What do the Nigerian tribes or ethnic groups have in common? Yet, Kemi’s comment could be seen as a reality check, not an umbrage, a wake-up call to the North’s leadership.

Prof. Rasheed Ojikutu, in a write-up in The Guardian of Sunday, 5 January 2025, titled: Garland for Kemi Badenoch, put it very succinctly: “A woman who says she is proudly Yoruba, but disregarded Nigeria as an entity may not be ‘’silly’’ after all because she certainly knows her onions. She is certainly not a fool in her attempt to “separate Paul from Barnabas’’.
Alluding to corruption, one of Kemi’s grouses against Nigeria, Prof. Ojikutu asked: ‘’Why do we want to nail Kemi Badenoch to the cross … why should someone with international repute not be ashamed about a country where an individual is alleged to have built 753 duplexes from the money taken from the purse of taxpayers?‘’ Kemi’s position about the North constituting enemies of the Yoruba is taken literally by many and condemned. But were the state governments in Yoruba land not forced to raise the Amotekun security outfits to contain perceived invading enemies (killer herdsmen) from the North?

Perhaps, Vice President Shettima’s angst was Kemi’s disparaging of Boko haram which possibly touched a nerve, considering that Shettima was governor of Borno state, the epicentre of Boko haram insurgency, between 2011 and 2019, when the insurgents were at their destructive peak, controlling many local government areas and unleashing a spate of bombings, including on the UN Office in Abuja.

Shettima, a state Commissioner who served in five ministries between 2007 and 2011 when he was elected governor, was a protégé of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff who has been tainted with allegations of sponsoring Boko haram which emerged in Maiduguri in 2002 during Sheriff’s governorship tenure (1999-2011). Following lingering allegations, Ali Modu Sheriff had to address a press conference in Abuja on 3 September 2014, three years after leaving office, to deny any links with Boko haram.

Vice President Shettima's decision to join the Kemi bashing attracted foreign media reportage.

The Independent, (UK) of 11 December 2024 captioned its story: Nigerian government hits out at Kemi Badenoch after she criticised the country. The story reads: “New Conservative leader is embroiled in a diplomatic row over comments she made about the African country where she grew up.”

It was projected as “a diplomatic row” because of Shettima’s status as vice president, which was probably lost on him.
The newspaper in a follow-up on 15 December 2024, captioned: “Nigerian VP who attacked Kemi Badenoch was accused of failures when Boko haram kidnapped 200 girls.” The Independent quoted Kemi’s allies as urging “people to scrutinise the record of Mr Shettima as being illustrative of the problems in Nigeria and its failings “.

The BBC on 11 December 2024 headlined its report: “Badenoch stands by Nigeria comments after criticism” while, the Voice of America (VOA), also on 11 December 2024 said: “Nigeria’s vice president slams British Conservative party leader.”

Shettima was governor of Borno state (2011-2019) and 2014 was the peak of the Boko haram insurgency with the most notorious incident being the kidnapping of 276 Chibok secondary school girls on April 14 that year, and the additional killing of an estimated 310 persons on May 5, at a staging base for rescuers of the Chibok girls.

According to statista.com, Boko haram attacks led to 38,255 deaths in Borno state between 2011 and 2023.

Speaking at Chatham House, London, in 2015, then Presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari stated that 14 Local Government Areas were under Boko haram control in Northeastern Nigeria - most of them in Borno state. He described the situation as “a big disgrace”.

Boko haram mutated into banditry in the Northwest, the twin evils which Kemi Badenoch distanced the Yoruba from thereby drawing the ire of Vice President Shettima.

It is intriguing what might have informed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pick Shettima, the former governor of Borno state, the epicentre of Boko haram as his running mate, and the appointment of Bello Matawalle, former governor of Zamfara state, the epicentre of banditry, as Minister of Defence!

Shettima, as vice president, should not have joined the lynch mob against Kemi, in the first instance. Many Nigerians, at home and in the Diaspora, are frustrated with the insecurity and level of corruption plaguing their country, contrary to Shettima’s grandstanding.

Kemi Badenoch’s knocks on Nigeria should be seen in the context of someone disappointed about the greatest Black nation on earth, the country of her ancestry, not living up to its billing.

I give the last words to Prof. Ojikutu: “Instead of being sheepishly dogmatic and unnecessarily self-opinionated, we should call on Mrs. (Kemi) Badenoch to bend her head for a garland because she is able to prick our memory to systemic failures in our nation building”.

Dr. Bisi Olawunmi is a Senior Lecturer at Adeleke University, Ede and a former Washington Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)