Kemi Badenoch
By Udu Yakubu
When Kemi Badenoch, the current leader of the Conservative Party (also called Tory) in the United Kingdom, set out on a spree of denigrating her home country, Nigeria, she didn’t just stop at blurting out unpalatable remarks about the political, economic, or social conditions in the country; she also delved into bitter tribal politics, declaring that she is Yoruba and has nothing in common with the northern part of Nigeria. According to her, northern Nigeria is a haven for Islamism and Boko Haram. She expressed dismay at being identified as Nigerian, stating, “I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity (Yoruba). I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where Islamism is. Being Yoruba is my true identity, and I refuse to be lumped with the northern people of Nigeria, who ‘were our ethnic enemies,’ all in the name of being called a Nigerian.”
Her statements reflect a broader, often unspoken disdain that many southerners harbour towards the north and northerners. This attitude reeks of superiority and condescension, a pervasive blight on Nigeria’s national identity. Badenoch’s rhetoric does not just betray personal ignorance; it exposes a deeper prejudice entrenched in southern elitism and street sentiments. It is high time that this despicable mindset is called out for what it truly is: a baseless and damaging illusion of superiority.
By declaring that she does not see herself as Nigerian but as Yoruba, Badenoch aligns herself with a cohort of southern elites who perpetually detach themselves from national identity to stroke their ethnic egos. Her description of the north as a “strange entity” not only dismisses the rich cultural and historical heritage of the region but also amplifies toxic stereotypes that portray the north as backward, violent, and unworthy of respect. Such rhetoric is not just insulting; it is inflammatory and unbecoming of anyone claiming intellectual or moral leadership.
This tension between northern and southern Nigeria is not new. Historically, it dates back to colonial policies that emphasized regional differences. The British colonial administration’s “indirect rule” system entrenched the north’s Islamic cultural identity while fostering a more Westernized socio-political structure in the south. These distinctions laid the groundwork for mutual distrust and stereotypes that persist today. Post-independence, this narrative has evolved with southern Nigeria often positioning itself as the more “civilized” part of the country, casting the north as a region needing “enlightenment” or “rescue.”
This superiority complex—that the south is more “enlightened,” more “progressive,” and better governed—has long been the anthem of the southern intelligentsia. Yet, the same south that boasts of its “progress” is riddled with corruption, insecurity, and underdevelopment. Its leaders, intellectuals and media practitioners-cum-propaganda trumpeters reserve their sharpest critiques for the north, ignoring their own failures while branding the north as irredeemable.
Badenoch’s disassociation from Nigeria in favour of her Yoruba identity is emblematic of this divide. Her choice of words, calling northern people “our ethnic enemies,” is not only divisive but also indicative of how deeply ingrained these prejudices can be, even among those who have risen to high echelons within and outside Nigeria. Her attempt to conflate the entire north with Boko Haram is a perfect example of being intellectually stunt and indolent. Northern Nigeria is much more than just the Boko Haram insurgency. The region is made up of nineteen states, with Boko Haram primarily operating in only three states—Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa—during its peak. At the close of the Buhari administration in May 2023, they had been critically confined to just the Lake Chad area. Reducing an entire region to the actions of a few extremist elements is not only unfair and uncharitable, but dangerous. It fosters division and perpetuates ignorance, traits unbecoming of someone who claims to represent rational thought. In actual fact, it smirks of racist thinking and strategy.
This regional bias and attitude manifests across multiple sectors of Nigerian society—from governance to economy, religion, and education. Common tropes paint northerners as uneducated, violent, and resistant to progress. These portrayals dehumanize an entire population and create barriers to understanding and empathy. In politics, criticism of northern leadership often operates on a double standard, where northern leaders face heightened scrutiny compared to their southern counterparts. Southern leaders frequently frame their northern peers as unfit for leadership, ignoring achievements and advancements made in northern states, even when southern leaders fall woefully short by comparison. This disparity in evaluation criteria suggests an ingrained bias that transcends objective assessment of governance and policy implementation.
Economic discourse also reveals these biases. Southern critiques often ignore the north’s significant agricultural and mineral wealth, focusing instead on poverty statistics without considering historical economic injustices or current efforts at industrialization. David Babachir Lawal’s article, “How Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills Expose Southern Disdain for North,” highlights how southern elites consistently undermine northern contributions. This tendency to attribute northern development challenges to inherent deficiencies rather than examining the historical and structural inequalities driving them reflects a deeply flawed mindset.
In education, the narrative persists. There is a prevalent belief in the south that northern education systems are inferior, with little acknowledgment of efforts like the Almajiri system reform to bridge gaps. Till today, many southerners are shocked when they hear a northerner speak standard British English, sometimes just as shocked as medieval Europeans who thought that Africans lived on trees. As Mark Amaza observes in his article, “Inaccurate View of the North by Southern Nigerians,” he is often asked, “How come you speak such good English?” The implication is that southerners expect northerners to speak less proficient English, or perhaps assume they should speak Arabic instead. This expectation stems from the stereotype that northerners are inherently less learned.
Cultural condescension is another pervasive issue. While “Aboki” as a Hausa word literally means friend, it has come to be used as a slur in southern Nigeria. In both Nigerian music and movies, “Aboki” is caricatured as an intellectually challenged, illiterate character whose stupidity is a source of entertainment. Truthfully, Hausa vendors and artisans are not called “aboki” because they are friends—it’s a condescending way of referring to a stereotyped group. Why then don’t southerners call random educated members of the same ethnic group “aboki”? The answer lies in prejudice.
The media amplifies these narratives. Their stories reek of generalisations and prejudices often associated with most analyses by a section of Western media and commentators. They view Nigeria with their jaundiced lenses, describing the country as made of a Muslim North and Christian South, oblivious of the various Christian minorities in the North and, the plethora of Muslims in the South, and the multiplicity of ethnic groups in the two divides that make a mockery of any analysis of a monolithic North or South. They view Africans with many unproven, unorthodox assumptions, in much the same way that many southerners view northerners and the North.
Southern-dominated outlets often depict the north as a hotbed of violence, poverty, and illiteracy, glossing over similar or even worse issues in southern states. For example, while northern leaders are scrutinized for governance failures, their southern counterparts frequently escape equivalent criticism despite comparable or worse performances. Issues like Boko Haram are framed as defining the entire north, whereas militancy in the Niger Delta and the atrocities of IPOB in the southeast receive nuanced coverage.
Such attitudes extend to social interactions, with many southerners avoiding collaboration with northerners or viewing them through a prejudiced lens. This division is unjust and detrimental to Nigeria’s collective growth. But what can we expect from a figure like Kemi Badenoch, who opposes multiculturalism in her country of origin but operates and thrives in a multicultural, multi-racial, and multi-religious British society? Married to a white Englishman, she epitomizes contradictions. She asserts that “not all cultures are equally valid,” and her rhetoric suggests that she also believes not all races are equally valid. She epitomises racism in the same way that many whites and blacks do.
Kemi Badenoch’s remarks and the attitudes they represent deserve outright condemnation. They starkly highlight the work needed to dismantle the toxic superiority complex that divides Nigeria. The smugness, double standards, and hypocrisy must be called out for what they are: a facade of progress masking deep-seated prejudice. Until this mindset is addressed, true national unity and growth will remain an elusive dream.
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Udu Yakubu is a biographer and publisher. He can be reached at: udu.yakubu@gmail.com
