Nigerian Roots Under Fire: Dele Momodu Calls Out Kemi Badenoch’s ‘Bitterness’ Towards Homeland

Badenoch, who currently serves as a senior figure in the UK Conservative Party and represents Saffron Walden in Parliament, described her time at the Federal Government Girls’ College in Sagamu as deeply traumatic.

According to Badenoch, the boarding school experience felt like imprisonment, citing poor sanitation, lack of access to clean water, and physically demanding tasks like cutting grass with machetes.

Reacting via his X (formerly Twitter) account on Tuesday, Dele Momodu voiced concern over what he perceived as Badenoch’s recurring negative portrayal of Nigeria. While acknowledging her impressive achievements abroad, he questioned why she consistently speaks ill of her country of birth.

“I truly and genuinely admire MADAM KEMI for her personal accomplishments,” Momodu wrote. “But I often shudder, feverishly, at her unfortunate denigration of Nigeria at every opportunity… May God almighty deliver her from whatever might have traumatized her so much while growing up in Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, in a separate development, Bashir El-Rufai, son of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, sparked outrage online after threatening to harm a social media user and their family. The threat was in retaliation to a comment made towards his mother, Hadiza El-Rufai.

Hadiza had earlier weighed in on the U.S. travel ban that impacted Nigeria and several other African countries, noting that many successful Nigerians abroad are of Igbo origin. Her remarks triggered a mix of support and backlash, to which she responded by stating that online criticism would not silence her.