Following her emergence as the leader of the United Kingdom Conservative Party, Kemi Badenock became highlight of prominent media outlets in Nigeria, her home country.
Though the British politician was born in the united kingdom, but she spent her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria and in the United States of America.
Speaking on Channels television about Kemi Badenock’s emergence as the leader of the U.K Conservative Party, the chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa revealed that she had reached out to Kemi Badenock two different times but got no response from her. She added that she would not attempt any further to getting Kemi Badenock to identify with her root.
The development led to Nigerians revisiting Kemi Badenock earlier statements about Nigeria in which she utterly denigrated Nigeria, labeling it an unsafe place where she had escaped from and wouldn’t want the United Kingdom to become like Nigeria.
This and other statement attributed to the British politician resulted in Nigerians tongue-lashing her across social media platforms for reportedly denying her Nigerian root and refusing to identify with Nigeria.
However, investigation has revealed that Kemi Badenock has not been disinterested in the Nigeria affair or unconcerned about the social issues in Nigeria.
In 2020 during the October National #EndSARS protest against police brutality in Nigeria, Kemi Badenock through her X handle, hinted that she had “unpleasant encounter” with the Nigeria police.
“I have friends and family out there taking part in these protests and get day by day updates. My solidarity of course is with them. As for my own unpleasant encounters with Nigerian police…that’s a story for another day”, she tweeted
In the series of tweet she made in respect to the #EndSARS protest and how the Nigeria authority mismanaged the event which resulted in the death of some unarmed protesters particularly in Lekki Lagos, Kemi Badenock revealed her efforts against police brutality in Nigeria
She wrote: ” Actually, I spoke to the Foreign Sec about #EndSars last week and also to @JamesDuddridge, Africa minister. We’ve been on this saga loooong before the protests started.
“UK govt supported a roundtable meeting on FSARS reform back in 2018 and helped the National Human Rights Commission to hold a public hearing on FSARS abuses in 2019
“Our High Commissioner, @CatrionaLaing1 has supported calls for police reform, asked the security services to respect the right of Nigerians to protest peacefully and directly raised these issues with the Nigerian govt. UK govt welcomes @MBuhari’s decision to disband FSARS.
“But as you and I know, the problem is much deeper than this. Back in 2006, On a DfID review, I learned of some appalling human rights abuses. Young men picked up by police and kept in jail for many years, not just without trial but **without being charged**. AWFUL stuff”.
She was responding to a question from one her followers on Twitter on how she as well as the UK government was responding to the #EndSARS protest in Nigeria.
The Twitter handle: @DoubleEph asked: “@KemiBadenoch What has the U.K. government (or you) been doing to help with the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria?”