The Presidency has stated that the recent remarks made by UK Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, will have no impact on Nigeria.
In her latest criticism about the country, Badenoch expressed concerns about the potential impact of ineffective governance in the United Kingdom, drawing a comparison to Nigeria.
Speaking on the need to build trust and position the Conservative Party as a solution to Britain’s challenges, Badenoch warned of the risks of Britain’s system faltering and likened it to governance issues in Nigeria.
She drew the analogy during her first speech of the year at an event organised by Onward, a British think-tank.
Reacting to her statements, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communications, Daniel Bwala, during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday, dismissed their relevance to Nigeria’s international relations or efforts to attract investors.
He said, “I don’t think it would have an effect because she’s not the government in power.
“Usually, these international relationships or collaborations are dealings between governments. Because she’s not the government in power, it will not have any effect.
“Secondly, because she’s a Nigerian, investors will be smart enough to access what she’s saying, whether it is born out of rhetoric.”
Speaking earlier in the interview, Bwala acknowledged Badenoch’s achievements in the UK, but argued that she is capitalising on populism that thrives on public discontent.
“The only problem we have with Kemi, I think, is the rhetoric because Kemi belongs to the right base in the United Kingdom, which is what you see in this populism around the world; that you can deepen on your support system if you can feed off of the anger of the people,” Bwala said.
“And so she’s building a rhetoric of denigrating Nigeria, demarketing in Nigeria, so she can probably win the acceptance or acceptation of the rights in her party. And that to me is counterproductive because if you look at Rishi Sunak, he is also of Indian origin.
“There has been this issue of gang rape in India. He has never used that as a weapon to promote what he believed to be a departure from what is likely to be believed as hereditary or history of the Indian people, but she has always denigrated Nigeria.”