A former foreign affairs minister, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, has expressed disapproval of the leader of the United Kingdom opposition party, the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch's constant negative remarks about Nigeria.

Akinyemi's comments followed Badenoch's latest utterances about Nigeria in her maiden speech of the year, delivered on Thursday, January 16, 2025.

The British politician has faced backlash in Nigeria following a horde of unsavoury remarks against her country of birth.

Badenoch is notorious for recounting her negative experiences during her stay in Nigeria before she left at 16.

During her campaigns for the Conservative Party leadership, she described the West African nation as a socialist country with a corrupt political class and widespread insecurity.

She took a swipe at the Nigerian Police last year and claimed to have experienced poverty while growing up in Lagos, the nation's commercial capital.

In December, Vice President Kashim Shettima slammed Badenoch for denigrating Nigeria, challenging her to drop the Kemi in her name if she's not proud of her country of origin.

But the unrepentant UK opposition leader fired another salvo at the Nigeria last week.

Speaking at an event hosted by Onward, a British think tank focused on economic and social research, she alleged that Nigeria destroys lives and that she doesn't want that for Britain.

“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” she said.

“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has. I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.

“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.

“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”

Akinyemi calls Badenoch's bluff

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Akinyemi accused the Conservative Party leader of using disparaging remarks about Nigeria to advance her political career.

The professor of political science warned that Bademoch is making a massive mistake if she intends to boost her political profile by dragging the nation of her birth through the mud, describing her utterances as a betrayal of her heritage.

"How can the daughter of a professor of UNILAG (University of Lagos) — her father was a medical doctor — a girl who went to the international school at UNILAG, make it sound like she was selling groundnuts and selling water in Lagos in order to advance her political career?” Akinyemi asked.

ALSO READ: We sought audience with Kemi Badenoch a few times but she ignored us - Abike Dabiri

“She would soon learn that you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus in order to advance your career. She is making a mistake, but she will soon learn.

“After all, right now, there is even a right-wing political party in the United Kingdom that is even to the right of the Conservative Party.

“So, she should be focusing on how to regain the right-wing profile of the Conservative Party and leave Nigeria alone.”