By Omolade Adegbuyi
The most important black politician in the United Kingdom, Mrs Kemi Olufunto Badenoch has said that she remains a Yoruba person and has nothing in common with the Hausa-Fulani North.She spoke with a British Newspaper, The Spectator, monitored by Irohinoodua.
The British politician spoke what actually represents the deep-seated feelings of majority of people from her ethnic group and possibly the thinking of most ethnic groups in Nigeria.
Kemi Badenoch is the leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom and the leader of the British opposition party.
She said “I am here to protect, and I will die protecting this country because I know what’s out there.”
Kemi Badenoch said she is Yoruba and identifies less as a ‘Nigerian’.
She said she has nothing in common with people in northern Nigeria, currently the haven of Islamism and Boko Haram.
Nigerians have for many years fought the crisis of ethnic identity in a country forced to live together by British imperial powers in spite of the glaring differences which remain a source of friction in Africa’s largest democracy.
She said “I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity [Yoruba],” she told British outlet The Spectator in an interview.
She spoke further that she has nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, which has been turned into Boko Haram operational base and hotbed of extreme Islamism.
The Nigerian Vice President Mr Kashim Shettima recently urged her to drop her Nigerian name referring to Nigeria as the “greatest black nation on earth, the nation called Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, Ms Badenoch has once again doubled down on the criticism, stating that being Yoruba is her true identity and refuses to be lumped up with northern people of Nigeria, who “were our ethnic enemies” all in the name of being called a Nigerian.
Ms Badenoch said “Somebody once told me when I was very young that my surname was a name for people who were warriors. They protected the crown, and that’s what I see myself as doing.”
The British politician added, “I am here to protect and I will die protecting this country because I know what’s out there.”
