Tanfeani and Kemi Badenoch, By Babafemi A. Badejo

Kemi Badenoch

Toyin Falola, the highly esteemed historian and professor renowned worldwide for his contributions to the Humanities and African Studies – most recently honoured with an Honourary Doctor of Laws from the University of Calgary – shared with me last year his thoughts on “Tanfeani”. We were discussing about the behaviour of a mutual friend on an issue. In his gentle mien, he asked me if I knew the etymology of “Tanfeani”. I responded in the negative. He told me it derives from a dwarfish goat, found in Iperu, Nigeria. He explains that human beings often prefer to see others in a limited or modest state, like a small, dwarfish goat, rather than flourishing abundantly, like a large cow producing liters upon liters of milk.

Any Yoruba speaker of a certain age would easily link Tanfeani with Ebenezer Obey’s philosophical lyric on that very word: “Tanfeani, Tanfeani? Enia o fe ni fo’ro, a f’ori eni”. Literally, Obey’s lyrics suggests that human beings resent the success of others and would rather prefer others’ demise or downfall.

Tanfeani came to my mind with respect to a good number of the Nigerian commentary on the result of the leadership election of the British Conservative Party which was announced on November 2, 2024. The outcome saw Mrs. Olukemi (Kemi) Badenoch, breaking the ceiling to become the first black person to lead a major party in the United Kingdom, in the combined sense of being the leader of His Majesty’s Opposition, a potential Head of Government or Shadow Prime Minister, so to say.

Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa the CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), felt it was her duty to congratulate and celebrate Badenoch in the regular Nigerian style. However,  Dabiri-Erewa claimed that her gesture towards Badenoch was met with rejection. Rather than keep quiet as a diplomat/consular official would have done, Dabiri-Erewa thought it was newsworthy to take to Channels TV to question the “Nigerianess” of Kemi.

In a display of limited understanding of international dynamics, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa, in my view, made an ill-conceived comparison by highlighting her support for Ms Chidimma Adetshina, the first runner-up at the recently concluded Miss Universe competition, while implying that Mrs. Badenoch might one day return to seek her assistance. However, this is not a Nollywood storyline, for goodness’ sake. I wish Kemi the occupation of 10 Downing Street. But even if she does not become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for whatever reason, what would she have lost from the history she has just made? And in such a situation where ill-action contributes to Kemi not attaining the top seat, what can the entire Nigeria (or any of its over-rated citizens like Dabiri-Erewa) do in influencing British politics? Will Nigeria threaten the UK about withdrawing her foreign investments if Mrs Badenoch did not occupy 10 Downing Street?

It was not only Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa that over-valued her worth and relevance at the international level. Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK), as usual blasted on all cylinders, casting aspersions on Mrs. Badenoch for “snubbing” the Nigerian government. To think that Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa, represented the Nigerian government vis-à-vis the British leader of opposition, shows the novice that FFK signifies in spite of his claim to knowledge. NIDCOM is unknown to the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic as well as Consular relations. Nigeria’s High Commission in the United Kingdom serves as the legitimate representative of the Nigerian government and, in that capacity, could appropriately extend fraternal greetings to the Leader of the Opposition. My friend, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, despite his complex but well-argued “thesis, antithesis, and synthesis” on this issue, got it right: Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa could have reached out to Mrs Badenoch privately, as a well-meaning Yoruba elder. In my view, her decision to go public on Channels TV, resembling the fiery rhetoric of FFK, only cast them both in the light of Tanfeani.  

It is important that Mrs. Kemi Badenoch has ignored all the noise and focused on her duties towards building a viable Shadow Cabinet and lead her party as His Majesty’s Leader of Government Opposition. Mrs. Badenoch exercised her associational right and emphasizes her being British. She is exercising a fundamental right known to the Nigerian 1999 Constitution in section 29. She is not Nigeria’s Ambassador to the UK. She does not want to be. Too bad for the Nigerians who want to appropriate her.

Mrs Badenoch stated publicly that the circumstances of her upbringing drove her to leave Nigeria. She has spoken of some of the hardships she saw growing up like fetching water from a mile and carrying chairs. She forgot to mention the ubiquitous NEPA that made those of my age depend on lanterns to study and today depend on Chinese rechargeable lamps as it has been impossible to provide regular electricity – stated as a constitutional right in Bolivia – in almost 60 years. However, I have read many friends refute this, arguing that Kemi attended the same school as their children and most of my children and did not endure the hardships she described. Some have even overly romanticised the lives of Nigerian academics in the 1990s.  My children and I, can attest to the hardships we faced when I could not afford some simple things as a struggling lecturer who had to care for my immediate relations during a time when public servants were expressly banned from supplementing their income through any form of additional work, whether mental or physical, beyond what the government paid them.

From all accounts, late Dr Femi Adegoke, aka “Fariga”, Mrs Badenoch’s father, fought injustices around him, from when he was at Ibadan Grammar School to his time at the College of Medicine, Idiaraba, where, as Prof. Oladapo Ashiru informed, Femi Adegoke’s original “Fariga” was changed to “Farigo” both symbolising a fighting spirit against injustice. Are those examining Kemi considering her early politicisation against corruption, injustice, and military rule, which set her apart from her contemporaries? My own young daughter at a slightly earlier time was subjected to a Nigerian constitutionalised ethnic discrimination aka “federal character” for which we sought solace at the Supreme Court of Nigeria that also divided with the weight more on the side of that constitutionalised injustice. For those comparing their children, who were Kemi’s classmates, the real question is: were their experiences truly the same? Furthermore, where are their children today? Many of Kemi’s classmates followed the “japa syndrome”.

Were the issues Kemi cited as driving her away from Nigeria unique to her time? As an undergraduate, I carried chairs from one class room to another — something children in public schools of my children’s generation still do. In some parts of Nigeria today, students continue to carry their chairs from home to school. The problem may be the tendency to focus only on selected urban or suburban places around Lagos. As a child, I fetched water from a stream about five miles away, and many children in Nigeria still do the same due to the normalisation of corruption. This corruption, perpetuated by critics of Mrs. Badenoch, stems from leaders who, in a just society, should be in jail for embezzling resources meant for infrastructural developments.

I salute Mrs Badenoch and appreciate her work. She more than associates with her primordial root by not changing or “englifying” her given names. Her appearance remains Yoruba, which is not the same as the associational “Nigerianess” that Mrs Dabiri-Erewa was searching for. There are indigenous Yoruba all over the diaspora, including Benin, Togo and many other lands as a result of the slave trade.

If, against all odds, Mrs Badenoch’s critical stance resonates with those in political power and leads to a meaningful reduction in the grand theft of our national resources, it would be cause for celebration. Such a shift would represent a significant victory for the vast majority of Nigerians.

I agree with Mrs Badenoch that Nigeria is a corrupt country as shown on a daily basis. I have documented corruption at the three arms, three levels of governance as well as at the public, private, and social sectors. Some of my friends would eagerly say that the UK is also corrupt. Fair enough. But there are fundamental differences. Corruption in the UK is not as widespread as it is in Nigeria. Furthermore, British politicians do not boast about corruption as if normal, unlike in Nigeria where anti-corruption institutions choose who to prosecute on the basis of which political party the offender is based, in the shifting alliances of thieves that we call political parties. Unlike in Nigeria, if you are caught in the UK, you are prosecuted and not given higher national office as well as national honours.

David Cameron, as British prime minister, once referred to Nigeria and Afghanistan, as being “fantastically corrupt”. What was President Buhari’s response? He did not walk out of the anti-corruption summit that the UK had called. Instead, he reportedly said he was shocked and embarrassed. His spokesman added that the prime minister was probably speaking of governments before Buhari’s. We later knew that corruption grew further under President Buhari just as many accounts are showing about the current administration of Bola Tinubu. The current Shadow Prime Minister has rightly added corruption and its debilitating impact on Nigeria as part of her focus. Given the impact of corruption in Nigeria driving immigrants who would have loved to remain in Nigeria to the UK, I hope she does not drop this focus.

Those who consider themselves more patriotic by criticising Kemi for speaking basic truths should channel their energy into pressuring governments at all levels to act responsibly. This would ensure that Kemi and others like her have no reason to “denigrate” Nigeria, sparing us the need to hang our heads in shame on the international stage.

I agree with Dr Sola Oni, the leader of the Yoruba Party in the UK, who differed with Mrs Badenoch on reparations for slavery, colonialism and today’s neo-colonialism. As a British leader of opposition, it is understandable that we would differ from her views. It is for us to carry out a principled campaign to change the views of Mrs Badenoch’s voters. A lot is available from sound pan-Africanist positions to try and persuade Mrs Badenoch to think otherwise about some of her views that reflect the lack of knowledge among the British people. Since the wealth created from the past from short-changing Africa is still being held on to, the British of today cannot escape by inheriting from their ancestors but reject responsibilities for that past.

If we become smarter and build on our national power as opposed to filling the deep pockets of our thieving leaders, we could do what General Olusegun Obasanjo as military Head of State did to reverse late Margaret Thatcher’s unjust policies towards Southern Africa in relation to the independence of Zimbabwe and anti-Apartheid.

On our part, we should address the nagging governance problems of leadership deficit and corruption that is driving the many Kemis away from us rather than ask for their heads for saying the truth from their respective vantage positions in the world. Finally, Kemi Badenoch being Yoruba does not make her Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom. We should please let her be.

Babafemi A. Badejo, author of a best-seller on politics in Kenya, was a former deputy special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia and is currently a legal practitioner and professor of Political Science & International Relations at Chrisland University, Abeokuta. Nigeria.