- First, it was Turkey.
- Followed by India.
- Now, it is Nigeria.
History was made on Saturday, November 2, 2024 when the Conservative Party of Great Britain elected Olukemi (Kemi) Badenoch their leader.
Kemi Badenoch, 44, was born by Nigerian parents in United Kingdom and was partly raised in Lagos Nigeria. She had her early education in Lagos and received her university education in Britain where she studied for a graduate degree in Software Engineering at the University of Sussex, 2003. She later studied law at the University of London graduating in 2009.
Before going into politics, she did various jobs including working as systems analyst and a consultant from 2006 – 2016.
She joined the Conservative Party in 2005 and in 2010 general election, she contested the Dulwich and West Norwood Constituency.
In 2012, Badenoch contested the London Assembly election. Her party won three seats in the London-wide list but she was not elected.
In 2015 general election, two members of her party Victoria Borwick and Suella Braverman, won parliamentary elections and vacated their seats on the London Assembly. Badenoch who had come third in the 2012 election picked up one of their seats. She retained the seat in 2016.
In 2017, she was elected a Member of Parliament, MP, for her party representing Saffron Walden.
Badenoch made rapid progress in her parliamentary career. In July 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed her Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families. In February 2020, she was made Secretary of Exchequer and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the International Trade Department.
In a cabinet reshuffle of September 2021 by Boris Johnson’s government, she was made Minister of State for Equalities and Minister of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government.
When Johnson resigned in 2022, Badenoch bid to replace him as the leader of Conservative Party. Harry York in The Sunday Times described her as “a relatively unknown minister of local government” but “within a week emerged as the insurgent candidate to become Britain’s next prime minister,” July 17, 2022.
She was appointed by Liz Truss government in September 2022 as Secretary of State for International Trade. Following Truss resignation, she endorsed Rishi Sunak in the leadership election.
In October 2022, Prime Minister Sunak allowed her to retain her portfolio of International Trade and added Women and Equalities Department to her charge.
During the 2024 general election, she was elected to Parliament for North West Essex. Due to the Conservative defeat at the election, she was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government.
Badenoch publicly criticized Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman. On July 28, 2024, she announced her campaign to be the new leader of the Grand Old Party, GOP. Her campaign was chaired by Rachel Maclean, a former Planning Minister.
She was initially seen as the frontrunner in the contest. But was defeated by Robert Jenrick in the second MP ballots with 22 and 28 votes respectively. She still lost the third ballot but topped the list at the final ballot with 42 votes, beating Robert Jenrick and James Cleverly.
In her acceptance speech, she vowed to hold Labour Party to account and to prepare over the course of the next few years for government.
Her stance on race, immigration, foreign policy, etc, are personal idiosyncrasies that have to do with her British partisan leaning. They are more of political correctness and not who she is really. Her predecessor, Rishi Sunak, did not deviate from the same course. It justifies the saying, “When you go to Rome, behave like Romans.”
Kemi, people migrate to the West not because they lack space in their countries. But because they are suffocating in their countries under brutal and corrupt leaders. Nigeria for instance is a little smaller than the whole of Western Europe. Incompetence and corruption have rendered the huge space unlivable and suffocating to the citizens.
You are likely to be the next Prime Minister of Great Britain. When that happens, it will be a miracle come true; a life-time opportunity to revive and reposition Africa starting with Nigeria. Be a Joseph for your country, Nigeria, and its people. That Nigeria is a country where the middle class live without running water and electricity is true. But it is neither the design nor the intention of the middle class to live in such man-made deplorable condition. Rather, it is the consequence of incompetence and corruption by the political leaders. You could reverse the condition.
Allow God to use you to save Nigeria as he used Joseph to save the children of Israel. You have enormous energy, use it to fight corruption in Nigeria. More importantly, think of restructuring Nigeria as it is the only way forward. Do not behave like other British prime ministers who know that it is the solution to the country’s underdevelopment and instability problems but chose to turn blind eye because of selfishness and hypernationalism. Work hard without fear or favor to create culture of rule of law, transparency, and sanctity of election in Nigeria. I emphasize Nigeria because unless Nigeria moves, the continent can hardly march forward.
That you are not proud to associate with your country of origin has to do with the situation in the country. Nobody should blame you for that. When home is not sweet, individuals tend to forget it.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on my blog in November 2024. Recently, the former prime minister of UK Tony Blair, of the Labour Party, said the stage was set for Kemi Badenoch becoming the prime minister of the country. He thanked Nigeria for the donation!
