Kemi Badenoch has stood by her past comments about
Nigeria, after the vice-president of the West African country accused her of
denigrating it.
The Conservative Party leader, who was born in the UK
but mostly raised in Nigeria, has repeatedly described growing up in fear and
insecurity in a country plagued by corruption.
On Monday, Nigerian Vice-President Kashim Shettima
suggested Badenoch could "remove the Kemi from her name" if she was
not proud of her "nation of origin".
Asked about Shettima's comments, Badenoch's spokesman
said she "stands by what she says" and "is not the PR for
Nigeria".
"She is the leader of the opposition and she is
very proud of her leadership of the opposition in this country," he told
reporters.
"She tells the truth. She tells it like it is.
She is not going to couch her words."
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During a speech on migration in Nigerian capital
Abuja, Shettima said his government was "proud" of Badenoch "in
spite of her efforts at denigrating her nation of origin."
Shettima was met with applause when he said: "She
is entitled to her own opinions; she has even every right to remove the Kemi
from her name but that does not underscore the fact that the greatest black
nation on earth is the nation called Nigeria."
He compared Badenoch's approach to that of her
predecessor, Rishi Sunak - the UK's first prime minister of Indian heritage -
as "a brilliant young man" who "never denigrated his nation of
ancestry".
It is unclear which comments Shettima was referring
to, but Badenoch has frequently mentioned her Nigerian upbringing in speeches
and interviews.
Born Olukemi Adegoke in Wimbledon in 1980, she grew up
in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the United States where her physiology professor
mother lectured.
She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to live with a
friend of her mother because of the worsening political and economic situation
in Nigeria, and to study for her A-levels.
After marrying Scottish banker Hamish Badenoch, she
took her husband's surname.
At the Conservative Party conference this year,
Badenoch contrasted the freedoms she experienced in the UK to her childhood in
Lagos "where fear was everywhere".
She vividly described the city as lawless, recalling
hearing "neighbours scream as they are being burgled and beaten - and
wondering if your home will be next".
Last week during a tour of the US, she described her
home city as "a place where almost everything seemed broken".
Her experiences helped shape her conservative ideals
and set her against socialism, she said
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