Former Nigerian Minister of External Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, has reacted to the recent comments made by UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch about Nigeria.

Prof. Akinyemi believes Badenoch’s remark is a misguided attempt meant to advance her political career at the expense of her heritage.

In an interview on Channels Television on Monday, January 20, 2025, Akinyemi, a renowned professor of political science and former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), expressed his disapproval of Badenoch’s denigration of Nigeria on the global stage.

Akinyemi said, “How the daughter of a professor at UNILAG, her father who was a medical doctor, a girl who went to the International School at UNILAG, would make it sound like she was selling groundnut and water in Lagos to advance her political career is beyond me.”

“She would soon learn that you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus to advance your career. She is making a mistake, but she will learn.”

The professor cautioned Badenoch to focus on addressing challenges within Britain and her Conservative Party rather than speaking ill of Nigeria.

“What she should be focusing on is how to regain that right-wing profile of the Conservative Party and leave Nigeria alone,” he stated.

Recently, Badenoch, while speaking on Thursday, January 16, 2025, at an event organised by a British think tank, Onward, stated that she doesn’t want the UK to suffer the fate of “terrible governments” like Nigeria, adding that, “And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it. I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.

“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.

“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life. So, I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”

Badenoch’s comment generated reactions from Nigerians, including the presidential spokesman, Daniel Bwala, who suggested that her remarks were in no way going to affect the country’s reputation.