The Presidency has dismissed recent remarks by UK Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, as having no significant impact on Nigeria. Badenoch, in her first speech of the year at an event hosted by the British think tank Onward, compared Britain’s governance challenges to those of Nigeria, citing the potential risks of ineffective governance.
Reacting to her comments, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communications, Daniel Bwala, stated during an interview on Monday that Badenoch’s remarks would not influence Nigeria’s international relations or its appeal to investors. “I don’t think it would have an effect because she’s not the government in power. Usually, these international relationships or collaborations are dealings between governments. Because she’s not the government in power, it will not have any effect,” Bwala explained.
Bwala also argued that investors would assess Badenoch’s rhetoric critically, noting that her Nigerian heritage might lead to skepticism about the motivations behind her statements. “Secondly, because she’s a Nigerian, investors will be smart enough to access what she’s saying, whether it is born out of rhetoric,” he added.
While acknowledging Badenoch’s political achievements in the UK, Bwala criticized her approach, describing it as leveraging populism and public discontent to gain support. “Kemi belongs to the right base in the United Kingdom, which is what you see in this populism around the world. She’s building a rhetoric of denigrating Nigeria, demarketing in Nigeria, so she can probably win the acceptance of the right in her party,” Bwala said.
He further contrasted Badenoch’s rhetoric with that of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, of Indian descent, who has refrained from using negative stereotypes about his home country to advance his political agenda. “There has been this issue of gang rape in India. He has never used that as a weapon to promote what he believed to be a departure from what is likely to be believed as hereditary or history of the Indian people. But she has always denigrated Nigeria,” Bwala concluded.
