The leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, Kemi Badenoch, once said it is mendacious for former British colonies to always blame their underdevelopment on colonialism.
The Nigerian-born British lawmaker who once served as UK business and trade minister said this in a viral video in October.
According to Badenoch, the UK government should be celebrated for ending slave trade and not be seen as the bane of global development as propagated by some former British colonies.
“There are many countries now who want to use guilt to try and exploit the UK. They asked for reparation. I saw it as a trade minister. It is not a culture war,” the UK Conservative Party leader said.
“I was at the WTO. I won’t name the minister from another country. And he was telling me we need to give up some of the things we were doing because of colonialism and they needed time to develop. These arguments are a scam. Don’t fall for it.
“We need to make sure we put this country first, we work well with our neighbours, we work well with other countries. But we have to look after ourselves.
“There are many things the British Empire got wrong but there are many amazing things the British Empire also did. We need to be honest about it and stop pretending that it was all bad. The British Empire ended slavery, the Atlantic slave trade. We need to talk about that more.”
Kemi Badenoch made headlines in April for her statement that the UK’s wealth and economic success shouldn’t be attributed solely to its colonial history or racial privilege.
Her statement sparked controversy, adding to the list of times Badenoch has been at the centre of public debate.
“It worries me when I hear people talk about wealth and success in the UK as being down to colonialism or imperialism or white privilege or whatever,” Badenoch said.
“It matters, because if people genuinely believe that the UK only grew and developed into an advanced economy because of exploitation and oppression, then the solutions they will devise will make our growth and productivity problem even worse.
“It matters in other countries too, because if developing nations do not understand how the west became rich, they cannot follow in its footsteps.
“And it matters when, as your trade secretary, I go to the World Trade Organization conference negotiating on the UK’s behalf, and some of my counterparts spend the entire time in meetings talking about colonialism, blame the west for their economic difficulties, and make demands that would make all of us – not just in this country, but around the world – poorer.”
Former British colonies renewed their call for slavery reparations from the UK government at a Commonwealth summit in Samoa last month, with King Charles III acknowledging the painful legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and stating that it continues to resonate today.
The UK monarch, however, avoided discussing financial reparations, instead encouraging leaders to focus on understanding history to inform future choices and address existing inequalities.
KOIKI Media had reported that the chairwoman and CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, revealed that her office reached out to Kemi Badenoch, in a bid to make the British lawmaker identity the Nigerianess in her, but received no response.
Badenoch’s action shows that she is not willing to identify herself as a person of Nigerian lineage, Dabiri-Erewa said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday.
Kemi Badenoch became the Conservatives’ new leader and the first Black woman to a head a major British political party on Saturday, after winning a leadership contest on a promise to return the party to its founding principles.
Badenoch, 44, replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and has pledged to lead the party through a period of renewal after its resounding defeat at Britain’s July election, saying it had veered towards the political centre by “governing from the left”.
She came out on top in the two-horse race with former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, winning 57 percent of the votes of party members.
Badenoch, 44, was born in London in 1980, but spent her childhood living in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the United States, where her mother lectured.
She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to live with a friend of her mother’s due to the deteriorating political and economic situation in Nigeria, which had affected her family.