Badenoch’s ‘colonialism’ remark triggers row

THE UK’S equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch (right), has been criticised after leaked messages revealed she claimed not to “care about colonialism”.

According to The Guardian, Badenoch, who was recently given an additional portfolio in the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, reportedly wrote: “I don’t care about colonialism because [I] know what we were doing before colonialism got there. They came in and just made a different bunch of winners and losers. There was never any concept of ‘rights’, so [the] people who lost out were old elites not everyday people.”

The leaked WhatsApp messages were revealed by VICE World News and posted on a group chat called Conservative Friends of Nigeria. Funmi Adebayo, a former member of the WhatsApp group and the founder and chief executive of Olorun, which produces the Black Monologues podcasts, said she leaked the messages following Badenoch’s promotion, the Guardian report added.

Badenoch’s portfolio now includes a junior ministerial position in the department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Adebayo warned that “dangerous” comments such as Badenoch’s would drive black supporters away from the party and government.

She said: “I’m no stranger to sitting opposite people who have completely different opinions to me … But we can connect as Nigerians and be honest about the fact that colonialism had an impact on Nigeria and that it was awful. It wasn’t as simple as winners and losers; I think it’s such a crass way to respond. Those losers are people who died and were murdered and raped.”