People & Money

Kemi Badenoch in Race to Replace Boris Johnson

Kemi Badenoch once said that growing up in Nigeria proved to her that socialism means “poverty and broken dreams”.

The Nigerian-British  Member of Parliament and former Minister of State for Equalities, Local Governments, Faith and Communities, Kemi Badenoch nee Adegoke is doing rather well in the race to replace the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson who resigned last week.

The 42-year-old who entered parliament only in 2017 was born to two Nigerian doctors in Wimbledon in South West London but grew up in Nigeria and the United States of America. She returned to live in Britain at the age of 16.

Insurgent Candidate

Mrs. Badenoch was elected to parliament only 5 years ago and has not held any senior position in government. The Ministerial position she quit as part of the wave of resignations that toppled Boris Johnson, Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities “is a mid-level position” in the British Government. Formally the Ministry of the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, it is not a cabinet position occupied by powerful politicians. Since the Ministry was created in 1979, none of its Ministers has ever launched a bid to become Prime Minister. Only three- Michael Portillo, Michael Howard, and Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer,  another contender in the race to replace Boris Johnson, became major British politicians and only after securing more important cabinet positions.

Also Read: Boris Resigns “Best Job in the World”, Pushed by 50 Resignations

Kemi Badenoch’s bid to become the next United Kingdom prime minister could hence have been justifiably dismissed as a most unrealistic pipe dream. But last Tuesday, in the first round of voting to select the new Conservative Party leader (who automatically becomes the British Prime Minister), Mrs. Badenoch secured 40 votes, more than the 30 she required to proceed to the second round of voting.

Supposed favourites like Jeremy Hunt, who has been a Member of Parliament since 2005 and served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2012 to 2018, and Foreign Secretary from 2018 to 2019 secured only 18 votes. Hunt made it to the final stage of the 2019 leadership election. Badenoch has secured the endorsement of one of the big beasts of the Conservative Party, Michael Gove, former Education under Theresa May and former Levelling Up Minister, under Boris Johnson who sacked him on the eve of his resignation.

In a survey of Conservative Party members, Mrs. Badenoch emerged as the second most favoured candidate to emerge as party leader. Her strong performance in the first round of the elections has established her as a major British politician, assured of a senior cabinet position after the elections. Many of her colleagues in parliament now think she is destined to become the next leader of the Conservative Party after the one that is elected to replace Boris Johnson.

The New Mrs. Thatcher; Explaining Kemi Badenoch’s Momentum 

In this era of Covid-19 fiscal splurges, until of late near-zero interest rates and American Republicans- on-every issue- besides-fiscal-prudence, rightwing voters are yearning for politicians who espouse solid conservative views on economic and social issues. Mrs. Badenoch has electrified the Conservative Party base because she boldly asserts her belief in small government and free enterprise. She has been described as “pugnacious”, a politician that is ready to pick up a fight to defend her views.

While western politicians tiptoe around racial issues, especially post-George Floyd, Badenoch boldly takes on the “woke” culture.  She once urged the police to “focus on neigbhourhood crime, not waste time and resources worrying about hurt feelings online”. The British police is often criticized for carrying out “stop and search” operations in black neigbourhoods where knife crime is endemic. In a recent campaign speech, she promised “free markets [and] limited government” that would “discard the priorities of Twitter.”

Also Read: Will An Asian Replace Boris? The 8 Top Contenders

A software engineer who has worked in the private bank, Coutts and at the magazine, The Spectator, (once edited by the Prime Minister she is seeking to replace, Boris Johnson), Mrs. Badenoch holds the conservative view that minorities would improve their socio-economic position by promoting a culture that emphasizes discipline and hard work. Conservatives like her regard liberals and the woke culture that advance racist state institutions as the main barrier to the progress of minorities, especially people of African descent, as problematic.

Kemi Badenoch once said that growing up in Nigeria proved to her that socialism means “poverty and broken dreams”, explaining that she paid her way through university in the UK by “flipping burgers and cleaning loos” in McDonald’s. According to her, this experience taught her that “hard work and honest endeavour can take you anywhere”. She has criticized the “intellectual malaise” that has made the right support the tendency” to prioritise “social justice” over “profit” and the “increased polarisation, protectionism and populism amplified by social media”.

Kemi Badenoch remained in the race after the results of the second round of votingcame in at 1:30 pm on Thursday 14 July.  She got the votes of 49 fellow Members of Parliament, adding 9 to her Tuesday tally. Rishi Sunak led with 101 while PennyMordaunt and Liz Truss came second and third with 83 and 64 votes respectively. Suella Braverman, another MP regarded as a young insurgent candidate secured only 27 votes and has hence dropped out of the race.

Conservative Party members, about 200,000 individuals who have paid membership dues, will vote to select the new party leader from the two contenders that come out top of the third round of voting by MPs.

A Nigerian Obama?

This is not the first time that a British with Nigerian origins would be aspiring to lead a British political party. In 2015, Chuka Umunna, then Shadow Business Secretary, entered the race to lead the Labour Party. He was briefly touted as a Nigerian Obama.

Also Read: Boris Exit: Russians Gleeful, Ukrainians Sad

If and whenever Kemi Badenoch becomes the British Prime Minister, she is not going to be popular with Nigerians. In her country of origin, the vast majority of citizens believe, like their governments, that subsidies and vast government restrictions on economic activities rather than free markets are the means to develop the economy and enhance popular welfare. Nigerians, including the overwhelming majority of academics and journalists, also believe in an international version of “critical race theory”, i.e. that the policies and nefarious actions of foreign governments and the international institutions they control e.g. the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, determine the quality of their lives rather than their country’s policies and choices. With her views on race and economic opportunity, Prime Minister Badenoch is unlikely to be celebrated in Nigeria as our own Obama. She is more likely to be derided as Thatcher’s daughter.

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