Kemi Badenoch


By all standards, it should be an inspiration: a daughter of immigrants, born Olukemi Olufunto, rising through the ranks of British politics to sit among the prime ministerial contenders. A story that should provoke pride, hope, and a sense of shared triumph among diasporic Africans, especially Nigerians. But what happens when the prodigy begins to spit on the soil from which her journey began? What happens when the ladder is kicked away, and the very foundation of one’s heritage is ridiculed with contempt?


Kemi Badenoch, in recent times, has traded the narrative of progress for the theatre of provocation. Her latest antics, sprinkled across interviews, public speeches, and most recently, her embarrassing outburst in a conversation with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, betray not just a miscalculated campaign strategy but a deeper identity crisis. For someone whose parents hailed from Nigeria and whose name tells no lies, her obsessive critique of immigrants, particularly Nigerians, is a curious case of political cannibalism.


It would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.


While her competitors in the Conservative Party draw battle lines against the Labour front, Kemi seems locked in a shadow-boxing match with Nigeria. You begin to wonder if her real opponent isn’t Keir Starmer, but a mysterious Nigerian ex who broke her heart. It has become a joke among Nigerians in the UK: “Did any Nigerian playboy break Kemi’s heart while she was in Nigeria?” But beneath the humour lies a bitter truth and this isn’t just satire. It is sabotage.


The facts make her position even more bewildering. According to the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), non-EU immigrants, including Nigerians, contribute significantly more in taxes than they receive in public benefits. Recent figures peg their net contribution at over £4.6 billion. The Office for National Statistics (ONS), in its 2025 update, reported that immigrants collectively add £83 billion annually to the UK economy. And if you walk through NHS hospitals, university lecture halls, financial institutions, and innovation labs, you’ll find educated Nigerians- doctors, nurses, engineers, tech entrepreneurs-all quietly powering Britain forward.


So, what explains Kemi’s bile, especially against Nigeria and immigrants?


It is an old playbook, dusted off and weaponised: stoke the fears of a restless majority by casting minorities as the problem. In Kemi’s case, her strategy mirrors the Trumpist dog-whistle politics-pillory the immigrants, exploit white anxieties, and pray that the angry base hands you power. But even Trump never disowned his Scottish roots.


In 2024 alone, over 52,000 Nigerians relocated to the UK. That’s a drop in the ocean compared to other immigration corridors, yet Kemi singles them out. You’d think we built the Titanic and sank it. She has nothing to say about the Pakistani or Bangladeshi communities, nor does she mention the vast Indian diaspora. She cannot dare them. But she saves her venom for Nigerians- her own people—perhaps because it is safer, easier, and more spectacularly self-hating. But this is where her story unravels.


Kemi wants to be accepted so badly that she is willing to erase herself. She dresses her ambition in the garb of manufactured outrage. But no matter how loud she shouts, how far she flings mud at Nigeria, the real British establishment hears the Yoruba names she cannot scrub off: Olukemi. Olufunto. And no matter how hard she tries, she will never be “one of them" and deep down, she knows it.


This is not new. James Boswell once said, "If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.” Kemi is spending her heritage like loose change in a vending machine of political favours. But generosity to the truth and fairness to fellow immigrants are coins she no longer carries.


The irony is rich and tragic: a woman who should stand as a beacon of multicultural achievement has chosen instead to become the poster girl of immigrant derision. In trying to become the white man’s candidate, she has made herself the black face of white supremacy.


In truth, there’s something deeply theatrical about her campaign. The forced smiles. The aggressive tone. The over-rehearsed disdain. It’s as if every sentence is calibrated to earn her applause from Britain First-not the Britain of now. She seems unaware that her performance is a parody. One that neither impresses the Tories nor fools the progressives.


Perhaps a minor point but symbolically, it’s telling. Even her grooming appears to be in rebellion. One would expect someone so eager to “represent” to present better. The lack of effort speaks volumes because no matter how many stylists she hires, the internal disconnect cannot be hidden. Real Nigerians slay with confidence. Kemi, on the other hand, struggles under the weight of dissonance.


The real tragedy here isn’t just about her rhetoric, it’s about her refusal to build bridges for the next generation of immigrant children who might look to her and hope. Instead, she sets fire to the bridges and tells them to swim across.


The Nigerian government must not keep quiet. This is no longer about an individual’s right to free speech-it is about national dignity. The Presidency or the Foreign Ministry should demand a rebuttal platform from Zakaria’s show. Someone must speak the truth Kemi is allergic to.


In the end, history will remember Kemi Badenoch not for breaking glass ceilings but for throwing stones at her roots. Her ambition may take her far, but it won’t shield her from the truth’s mirror. And when the applause dies and the curtains fall, all she will have left is her reflection and the name she tried so hard to outrun: Olukemi Olufunto, a name so Nigerian, borne by a girl so Black. No matter how hard she tries, she can never be white enough for the dream she chases.



Dayo Babalola ©️

27 July 2025