The Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has stated that Nigeria will not pressure Kemi Badenoch, the newly elected leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, to acknowledge her Nigerian heritage.
Dabiri-Erewa, whose office is responsible for overseeing the activities of Nigerians abroad, revealed that they have attempted to contact Badenoch several times but have yet to receive a response.
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“It depends on if she identifies the Nigerianess in her. We have reached out to her once or twice without any response, so we don’t force people to accept to be Nigerian,” Dabiri-Erewa said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on Wednesday when asked if the government has identified with Badenoch.
“If you appreciate the Nigerianess in you and you want to work with us, we are open to everybody, but we cannot force you to appreciate the Nigerianess in you. You remember the Miss Universe Nigeria in South Africa.
“Until she got into a little problem with South Africa she identified with Nigeria, and she identified with Nigeria, came to Nigeria and we hosted her. As long as that blood is in you, you are a Nigerian.
“So, it depends on Kemi to decide whether appreciates the Nigerianess in her, whether she wants to work with Nigeria, but we cannot force anybody.”
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The Conservatives elected Kemi Badenoch as their new leader on Saturday, succeeding Rishi Sunak, who resigned following the party’s poor performance in the July general election.
At 44, Badenoch triumphed in the closely contested race against former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, securing 57 percent of the party members’ votes.
Becoming the first black leader of a UK-wide political party, Badenoch described it as an “enormous honour” to take on the role, while acknowledging that “the task ahead is challenging.”
“We have to be honest about the fact we made mistakes” and “let standards slip,” she said.
“It is time to get down to business, it is time to renew,” she added.
Badenoch was born in London in 1980, but spent her early years in Lagos, Nigeria, and the United States, where her mother worked as a lecturer.
At 16, she moved back to the UK to live with a family friend, as the worsening political and economic conditions in Nigeria had started to impact her family.
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