By Enyichukwu Enemanna
UK’s Tory party leader and Nigerian-born Kemi Badenoch has alleged that she has come under attacks arising from her race as the first Black woman to lead the Conservative Party.
Badenoch who had previously claimed that Britain is “the best place in the world to be Black” on Sunday noted a rise in ethno-nationalist rhetoric on social media, stating that critics questioned her achievements due to her race and ethnicity.
She labelled her attackers as suffering from “Kemi derangement syndrome.”
“There’s a certain cadre of people who clearly can’t cope with the fact that I won this, and I’m doing it. The level of personal attacks from anonymous people it’s hysterical. Not even just from MPs. I actually don’t think it’s that many MPs. I think it’s two to three people out of 120. That’s nothing. But online as well. People used to talk about Trump derangement syndrome. I think there’s a Kemi derangement syndrome: ‘How could she possibly have done this?’” she said in an interview with the Sunday Times.
Taking her resentment to the social media, the UK opposition leader said, “There’s a lot of ethno-nationalism creeping up, lots of stuff about my race and my ethnicity and the tropes around, ‘well, she couldn’t possibly have done this all by herself.’”
Born in Wimbledon and raised in Nigeria before returning to the UK at 16, Badenoch has previously distanced herself from her Nigerian roots.
The Sunday Times quoted her on Saturday, saying, “I always try to think of every possible explanation before I go to race and racism. I think that is a healthy way to run a society. I remember when I stood up a few years ago and said Britain is not a racist country—ethnic minorities do very well here, it is white working-class boys who are actually struggling on a lot of metrics—and I got pilloried for that.
“My view is that there are people out there who will say whatever it is, they will throw whatever kind of mud at you, and they will hope that it sticks.”
Speaking on former MP and television presenter Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast earlier in the month, she said she was “Nigerian through ancestry” but “by identity, I’m not really”.
Last year, Badenoch faced criticism from Nigeria’s vice-president, who said she had “denigrated” the West African country.
“I know the country very well, I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” she said. “But home is where my now family is.”
On social media, Jimoh Akeem Aderemi wrote, “No amount of apparent display of loyalty will make you a British in the real sense of it…”.
Comr Taiwo said, “If you are a Nigerian now, we for join hands with you take drag them for social media. But this one no concern Nigerians. Na Britico Vs Britico”, referring to her denial of her Nigerian origin.
