The last time and that was the first time I wrote about Kemi Badenoch's indiscretion in her often needless and uncharitable comments and commentary about Nigeria, I pointed out that she was probably inexperienced, unintelligent and unwise, especially for someone holding such a position as she is currently holding.
Her recent comments in apparent response to the Nigerian Vice President, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, while obviously affirming her lack of experience, intelligence and wisdom, especially in international relations, has further revealed another side of her - tribal bigotry.
I listened to the comments made by the Nigerian Vice President. He said all the right things. He also added that Kemi has a right to her views, including the right to remove 'Kemi, from her name. And why not?
If you are so ashamed of and find a nation or a people so disdainful, you could as well remove anything that ties your identity to such a nation or people.
Unfortunately, all that Kemi Badenoch's intelligence and exposure or lack thereof could give her to say in response was that she is Yoruba and she has nothing in common with Boko Haram, Northern Nigeria.
Read Kemi Badenoch:
“I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity [Yoruba].”
“I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where Islamism is.”
It surely takes an unintelligent, unwise, and ignorant ethnic bigot to essentially seek to characterise Northern Nigeria with or lump it in the basket of Boko Haram. How shameful.
It is clear that this lady is clueless to the fact that there no monolithic North or Northern Nigeria; whether culturally, religiously, politically, socially or otherwise.
Even in the clusters of the North that are predominantly Muslim, it is a very negligible and inconsequential number in that population that had/have any association with or that supported/support Boko Haram.
So, to have anyone seek to cloak Northern Nigeria with the Boko Haram cloak, is most ignorant, tragic, shameful and plain idiotic.
I have read some people hailing her, albeit ignorantly, not knowing that she is denigrating all of us Nigerians.
Some even say she is speaking the truth. What truth exactly? Speaking the truth is different from being ignorantly arrogant, disrespectful, irresponsible, rambunctiousness, and bigoted.
Many of us Nigerians, both at home and in diaspora, including myself, often criticise and have harsh words for both Nigeria and our leaders, and rightly so, but our criticisms and harsh words are borne out of a sense of patriotism and geniune loyalty and love for our nation and are couched and meant to lift up and not to put down, to build up and not to destroy and to unite and not to divide.
Unlike Kemi, many of us have no alternative nation. We do not need her to be a PR person for Nigeria. She can't even be a PR person for a nation she clearly does not recognise, love or know much about.
Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear, from Kemi Badenoch's expressed views and opinions that she is not only anti-Nigeria but also anti-Africa, probably driven by inferiority complex and a desperate quest for validation.
Indeed, from her recent comment, it is obvious that she sees herself as Yoruba and not Nigerian and that explains a lot of things.
You can not be a Nigerian and not accept all its component parts and peoples, irrespective of their characteristics and shortcomings.
The same way Nigerians of other ethnic nationalities, tribes and regions accept the Yorubas and South West geopolitical region, irrespective of their characteristics and shortcomings.
In my earlier write up, I pointed out that she runs the risk, if she doesn't wise up and retrace her steps, of her current position as leader of the opposition UK Conservative Party being the highest she would go politically. Her continued indiscretion apparently seems to confirm that my fear.
It must be stated that as we have our unique problems and challenges in Nigeria (many of which I am not proud of), so also does her adopted country have its own challenges, including economy, healthcare, education, even corruption, etc. She should spend more of her time working on her party's alternative solutions to those.
I will end this by joining
Vice President Shettima to urge her to feel free to remove 'Kemi' in her name. It is within her right to do so and she wouldn't be the first person to do so.
God Bless Nigeria.
©️ Uche Diala
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Opinion