Thesis, Anti-thesis, and Synthesis of the Kemi Badenoch in Many Nigerians: Beyond Nationality and Patriotism
Bola A. Akinterinwa
Kemi Badenoch is an important name in international life, especially because of the many other names that can be formed from it. ‘Kemi’ is a Yoruba name reserved for a female which can mean ‘look after me,’ ‘pamper me,’ ‘appreciate me,’ or ‘nurse me.’ Depending on who is looking, pampering, appreciating or nursing, the name can have different prefixes and suffices. We can have ‘Ola and Kemi’ to form ‘Olakemi.’ ‘Olukemi,’ ‘Adekemi,’ Sekemi,’ etc. are derived in the same manner. In the context of Kemi Badenoch, her ‘Kemi’ is the short form of ‘Olukemi.’ And true, Olukemi is also the shorter version of Oluwakemi, meaning God cares for me, God is my care-taker and protector in various ramifications. This name is etymologically Nigerian, especially in light of the fact that her other names are Olufunto Adegoke. This simply and undoubtedly means that she is a Nigerian by the principle of ius sanguinis, that is, by blood descent or heritage in international law. Besides, going by Nigeria’s constitutional law, Kemi Badenoch is, without any whiff of doubt, a Nigerian by blood descent.
Kemi Olufunto married Hamish Badenoch in 2012 who was born in Wimbledon and educated not only in Ampleforth where he was not only head monitor, but also at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College. Hamish became a notable investment banker but gave up the career to support the political career of Kemi, his wife. Even though his name started with ‘bad’ and ends with Enoch, Banker Enoch is not and cannot be bad. For Kemi to have married an Enoch, a British means she is also British by marriage which reveals mutuality of love and respect as shown by Enoch’s resolve to forsake his own career to support his wife’s ambition. Enoch is one of the three people in the Holy Bible known not to have died. Elijah did not die. Whoever answers the biblical name, Enoch, cannot but be an embodiment of goodness. But what is the problematic in this case?
The Problematic: Thesis and Anti-thesis
The problematic is a resultant from Kemi Badenoch’s election on 2 November 2024 as the new leader of the Tory Conservative party in the United Kingdom. She contested against Robert Jennick for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Her election generated much happiness in Nigeria as patriotic Nigerians see the election as a pointer to better days to come in Nigeria. In the eyes of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), chaired by Honourable Abike Dabiri-Erewa, simply Abike here, Honourable Kemi Badenoch, simply Kemi here, is a role model that should be emulated and preached to the younger generations seeking greatness in life in Nigeria.
For instance, the NIDCOM has a weekly programme, called The Diaspora, during which Nigerians in Diaspora are show-cased and developments in Nigeria are explained. And true enough, one major responsibility of the NIDCOM is ‘to initiate policies needed to recognize and harness the potentials of Nigerians in Diaspora networks and organisations.’ This largely explains why Abike is much interested, in the discharge of her mandate, in expressing Nigeria’s solidarity with Kemi’s political feat. The general happiness of some patriots in Nigeria also prompted the need to congratulate Kemi.
However, Abike’s congratulatory quest became problematic from many perspectives because of some issues. First, the election was British in all senses and not Nigerian. As a contestant, Kemi contested as a British and not as a Nigerian. She was born in Wimbledon, London, on 2 January 1980, and raised up in Nigeria and the United States before returning to the United Kingdom in 1996 at the age of 16. Explained differently Kemi only sees herself as British by the rule of ius soli, that is, by place of birth. This self-perception, though a truism, ignores the fact that she is also a Nigerian by ius sanguinis. Indisputably, she is both Nigerian and British and therefore, has dual national nationality, not by her own making, but by force majeure. The admission of Kemi as a British does not and cannot prevent observers from looking at Kemi as also a Nigerian.
Secondly, felicitating with Kemi is very reasonable. Kemi once contested and failed. She contested a second time and won. Is her sustainable courage not worth commending? In the current world of discrimination, bearing in mind that Kemi originated from one of the countries described as shitholes by former US President Donald Trump, and particularly from Nigeria, a country considered in 2016 as ‘fantastically corrupt’ and for that matter, by a British Prime Minister, David Cameron, there is no way every right-thinking and patriotic black and African man will not be encouraged and happy about the elevation of Kemi Badenoch in a developed society like Britain. It is within this frame of thinking that the quest of Abike to rejoice with Kemi on the occasion of her election, in an unprecedented manner, as the leader of a major political party, should be seen, explained and understood.
The problematic is unnecessarily made complex by intervening interlocutors to the extent of not only insulting one another, but also raising several pertinent questions of international law. The complication of the problem began with the interview granted to the Channels Television during which Abike was asked if Kemi had been congratulated for her well-deserved election. In her reply, Abike explained that efforts were made to reach out to Kemi and congratulate her on her activities, even before her recent election as Tory Leader but that there was no response from Kemi. Abike explained further that no one could force anyone to show his or her ‘Nigerianness’ or if he or she refused to be congratulated. Many observers saw Kemi’s refusal to be felicitated with as a snub on Abike. As such, there are proponents and opponents of the attitudinal disposition of Kemi.
In this regard, most shamefully, descendants of Oduduwa came into the public to be destroying themselves rather than making efforts to douse the misunderstanding. Individually or officially, Abike and Kemi are sisters in the Yoruba setting. There is nothing wrong with the intervention of Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK), who reportedly blamed Kemi for snubbing Abike. Kemi cannot afford the luxury of snubbing Abike, an elderly sister. FFK’s intervention might have infuriated some people but it has disturbingly served as a pretext, not only to defend Kemi but to also condemn FFK, politician and former Minister of Tourism of Nigeria, as well as launch immoral missiles at Abike. New areas of dispute are created instead of nipping in the bud the existing ones. In other words, the ideal thing to do is to ensure Yoruba harmonious entente rather than deepening the mésentente. The issues at stake are not about patriotism, Nigerianness, or snubbing of Abike by Kemi, but the misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the intentions of Abike, by the Nigerians in Diaspora, in her individual capacity and particularly in her capacity as the Chief Executive of the NIDCOM.
According to Baasegun (Dr) Olusola Oni, the Leader of the Yoruba Party in the United Kingdom, FFK is myopic. He is ‘a Nigerianista, self-blinkered, willfully ignorant, deluded, suicidally optimistic Yoruba liberal, the type that danced as the Titanic sank. Intellectually mummified into humiliating fellow Yoruba, fueled by jealousy, disguised as cynicism and patriotism. Like Fani Power, his father, Fani-Kayode is a political prostitute. Fani Power betrayed the Yoruba…’ This is most unnecessary in a decent Yoruba conflict resolution setting and reciprocal treatment.
Baasegun Oni apparently is not happy with FFK for humiliating ‘fellow Yoruba.’ He may be right in his reaction. However, has the Baasegun not also humiliated other Yoruba fellows with his attacks on FFK? Has he not worsened the matter by creating a nexus between FFK and his father? Should humiliation be reciprocated as Yoruba fellows? Baasegun Oni did not stop there. He said Abike Dabiri-Erewa ‘has no standing and no mandate to demand audience with the UK Leader of Opposition. That is the job of the High Commission. Dabiri-Erewa is not even in the pecking order. Second, Dabiri-Erewa displays an alarming emptiness, and a belief in her own self-importance, when she equates Kemi Badenoch refusal to meet with her as evidence of lack of Nigerianess. Who does Dabiri-Erewa think she is? There is no Nigerianess. It is no more than grandstanding, an illusion created by Nigeria’s privileged. Third, Dabiri-Erewa is not known to many of us in the Diaspora…’ Two main issues are raised by Baasegun in his complaints: ‘Nigerianess’ and Abike’s locus standi.
As regards ‘Nigerianess,’ my opinion has been made known many times in this column, Vie Internationale. I have observed that we have Nigerians without Nigeria and Nigeria without Nigerians. I have argued that the notion of an indivisible and indissolubility of Nigeria is more of a myth than reality as the historiography of self-determination in international relations has shown. Consequently, I have no qualms with Baasegun quarrelling with ‘Nigerianess.’ The problem, however, is what ‘Nigerianess’ means to different peoples.
Nigerianess can mean characteristics, nationality, affinity, behavior, culture, etc. Nigerianess, in the thinking of Abike, is nationality of Nigeria as it is today. Whether anyone likes it or not, Nigeria is a sovereign state in international relations. It is internationally so recognized in spite of its ‘fantastic’ corruption, bad governance, one ethnic community dominating the others, Nigerian complicity in the exploitation of Nigeria’s natural resources by foreigners, etc. All of these have not prevented the continued existence of Nigeria. The various agitations for separate existence have not also stopped Nigeria’s existence.
Are these problems enough to refuse to respond to Abike’s request for an audience? Is Abike not older than Kemi? Should official status require disregard for private, officious, official, and cultural status of Abike? Kemi has the choice to or not to associate with Nigeria and Nigerians. Does the choice obliterate the home truth of her being a Nigerian? Kemi might have had painful mistreatments like me. I have been most oppressed and embittered by the Governments of Nigeria. However, in the belief that there is still light at the end of the tunnel, Abike is pleading with everyone to be hopeful, meaning that Kemi is not alone in her grievance.
Kemi, Nationality, Patriotism: The Synthesis
As reported, Kemi was born to Femi Adegoke and a physiologist mother, Feyi, who once lectured at the University of Lagos and in the United States. This means that Kemi had a solid educational family background. One implication of this is that Kemi cannot but have the potential to always engage in free and independent thinking. She can decide which of her nationalities will be given priority to the detriment of the other. Consequently, if Kemi emphasizes her British citizenship, it means that her so-called nationality of Nigeria is at best, secondary. Here lies the problematic that defines the thesis. Many people have theorized that everything is possible in Nigeria or that impossibility does not exist in the Nigerian dictionary.
And true enough, it is only in Nigeria that hard facts are denied and that vote-buying is being perfected election after election. In Nigeria, elections were held on June 12, 1993 and election results filtered to the public and published by some media houses.
The Ibrahim Babangida government reportedly ‘annulled’ the election and its results. The problematic thesis is whether an election that took place can ever be annulled and whether the results can also be cancelled. Our thesis here is that the elections cannot be annulled and the results cannot be cancelled. The worst scenario that can exist is refusal to accept the results. The elections and the results are already a fait accompli, it is therefore a matter of acceptance or rejection. It is this same mania of looking at the personality of Kemi who is behaving like a very typical Nigerian in a British setting and trying to evolve a Nigeriano-British mentality. Kemi is first a Nigerian-British before being a British-Nigerian. This is the thesis.
The counter thesis is the denial by Kemi by considering new variants in the definitional criteria of her nationality and giving impression that her British nationality can be clear cut separated from her Nigerian background in her official records in the UK. In the eyes of Kemi, she is only British. Her British nationality is already being indirectly insulted. When Kemi tried to explain the rationale behind her career success by underscoring her belonging to the working class, public reactions have been more tainting than complimentary. @JohnSmith-xw5qe says ‘just because a kitten is born in a Kipper box doesn’t make it a fish!’ @clivewalker5465 says Kemi is ‘not working class, and not British.’ Additionally, @eh1702 says Kemi ‘doesn’t know what working class is. She was staying with her mother’s friend at this time. She had a part time. She had a part time place at college. She had a “back home’’ of upper-middle professional parents (GP & Professor) a middle class lifestyle that would be landed gentry class in Britain – drivers…’
This is another way of saying that it is not sufficient for Kemi to have been born in the UK to claim to be a British. This perspective is quite arguable. In many countries of Europe, the principle of ius soli necessarily confers nationality and the United Kingdom is not an exception. One can acquire automatically British citizenship if one is born outside of the UK to a British parent but one’s children cannot automatically become a British. This is the principle of blood descent (ius sanguinis). Other generations have to apply for the UK citizenship. Citizenship by marriage, by naturalization, by conferment, by registration, etc., are other means of acquiring citizenship of many countries. Kemi is British by the fact of place of birth for which the law provides. To contest this fact is an anti-thesis at the level of Britain.
In the same vein, at the level of Nigeria, it is an anti-thesis for Kemi to deny her Nigerianness to borrow the words of Abike Dabiri-Erewa. Kemi and Abike are both descendants of Oduduwa and are therefore supposed to be traditionally well-cultured the Yoruba way. If Kemi was born in 1980, and for that matter to notable Yoruba parents, and Abike was born in 1962, Kemi, as a cultured Yoruba person, cannot afford the luxury of looking face-to-face to an Abike who is older than her. This is one cultural implication of the difference in age. This point is made in light of the fact that, first, in her official capacity as the Chief Executive of the NIDCOM, Abike called to interact with her as a Diasporan but Kemi reportedly never bothered to respond to Abike’s calls. This is disrespectful in Yoruba culture
And perhaps more notably and disturbingly when Kemi was elected as the Tory leader, Abike renewed her efforts to link up with her and particularly to congratulate her on her election, Abike was reportedly snubbed. I think Kemi only behaved as a British and not as a Nigerian. Britain is a country where neighbours living next to one another may not know or see one another in six months, unless they jam one another on the staircase or in the lift. Everyone minds his or her own business.
In Nigeria, life is different and is always largely predicated on esprit de corps. The mere fact that Kemi and Abike are both politicians is enough reason to acknowledge Abike’s calls. Abike is senior to Kemi not simply by age but also in the business of politics. Kemi has served as the representative of Saffrom Walden from 2017 to 2024 and has also been Member of Parliament for North West Essex since 2024. Abike, before this time, was an Honourable Member in the House of Representatives in Nigeria. She was formerly a Chairperson on Diaspora Affairs. She was first elected in 2003 and re-elected in 2007 and 2011. In fact, she also served as the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora. Thus Kemi and Abike are both in the business of politics at different levels. There is no good basis for anyone of them to take the bad end of the stick individually or officially in the defence of one’s country.
When Abike was asked what went wrong in the relationship between Kemi and NIDCOM, Abike had it that the Government and people of Nigeria are happy about the great feats Nigerians are making in the world over. This explains why she sought to congratulate Kemi as a Nigerian of pride and source of sweet inspiration. Since she refused to respond, Abike made it clear that nothing can be done to compel anyone to accept his or her Nigerianness. This brings us to the question of the nexus between nationality and patriotism as synthesis of the problem.
The synthesis of Kemi Badenoch as a thesis and anti-thesis raises, on the one hand, patriotism, and the reconciliation of net-work and net-worth of both Kemi, Abike, and many other Nigerians that have been elected or re-elected in various countries of the world. For examples, in the same United Kingdom, there are five other British of Nigerian origin who are similarly doing well and are all of the Labour Party: Kate Osamor, MP for Edmonton and Winchmore Hill. She was the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development from 2016 to 2018 and a Member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus; Chi Onwurah, an electrical engineer and MP representing Newcastle Central and West; Florence Eshalomi; Taiwo Owatemi representing the Conventry North West; and Bayo Alaba, who was elected the first Labour MP for Southend East and Rochford, was a former parachute regiment soldier and a graduate of manufacturing and business. He is the only male of the six British-Nigerian politicians. He is a Labour Councillor; and Helen Grant of the Conservative Party representing the Maidstone and Malling.
Like Kemi, these British of Nigerian origin are playing active parts in the political developments of the United Kingdom and are joyously relating with Nigeria. The umbilical chord tying them to Nigeria has not been cut. What the NIDCOM under Abike Dabiri-Erewa is particularly happy about is that Nigerians are doing well internationally and particularly in many leading countries of the world. The NIDCOM wants the happiness to be celebrated, beginning with congratulatory felicitations.
The feat by Kemi, becoming the first Nigerian, the first black African, and the first female black, to be elected leader of the Tories is major and is worth nationally and continentally celebrating. It is a clear message to Nigerian and African leaders that if the home base is made conducive, the sky can only be the limit to human development, and particularly for the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Kemi was formerly a Secretary of State for Business and Trade from 2023 to 2024 and President of the Board of Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2022 to 2024. If Kemi can be grateful to her supporters for her re-election, why should the supporters in Nigeria not be also thankful and felicitate?
In the words of Kemi, ‘it is an honour and a privilege to have been re-elected to be your Member of Parliament and I am grateful that you have put your trust in me to represent you once again. To all those who support my campaign, thank you…’ In essence, people should always be grateful to God for all His blessings. Kemi did not win her election with votes cast only. Prayers by her friends and relations in Nigeria, at home and abroad are dynamics. Baasegun Oni, as a holder of an important traditional chieftaincy title, must not encourage Kemi Badenoch to develop unnecessary arrogance that she can set aside her home country because of the better environmental conditionings in Britain. Additionally, Baasegun Oni, as a holder of an important traditional chieftaincy title, must not encourage Kemi Badenoch to develop unnecessary arrogance that she can set aside her home country because of the better environmental conditionings in Britain. Additionally, Baasegun Oni, as a notable Yoruba fellow should serve as a mediator or reconciliator by differentiating himself from the people he is also attacking. Without the Nigeria-based foreign-trained Nigerians, those in the Diaspora only exist in a vacuum. Yoruba people at home and in the Diaspora must show the richness of their exemplary cultural disposition to the world. Yoruba culture must be severally and collectively defended and promoted. Baasegun Oni’s point that Honourable Dabiri-Erewa ‘has no standing and no mandate to demand audience with the UK Leader of Opposition’ is wrong. The operational word here is ‘demand’ which can have a manu militari connotation. In its sense of manu militari, I do agree with Baasegun Oni. Outside of this, Honourable Dabiri-Erewa has all the necessary wherewithal, including self-recognition, official status, and functional responsibility to ask for audience beyond the walls of protocol and etiquette and order of precedence. Baasegun Oni is only looking at the issue from the purview of public international law and not from the perspective of both international life and private international law. This should not be so as historico-political data lend credence to this observation
