The British Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said that the UK needs to reconsider its stance on immigrants, particularly to ensure they do not turn the UK “into the sort of place that everybody else is running from,” a situation that depicts Nigeria’s current situation grappling with economic crisis and a brain drain of its young and finest talents.

According to Ms Badenoch, if she wanted a taste of those vices bedevilling a third world nation like Nigeria, she would simply move back into Nigeria. She insisted that she would rather not have the same third-world woes replicated in the UK.

“It’s not about bringing the culture from the other place and turning the UK into the place you just come from. If I wanted to be in Nigeria, I would have moved back to Nigeria. I don’t want to recreate Nigeria in the UK,” stated Ms Badenoch.

Having lived in Nigeria for some years, she said citizens are not treated equally, but by their social and political standing, Ms Badenoch said it was important to preserve Britain’s liberal values— free speech and equality under the law.

She vowed to “die” defending these values.

People don’t understand how special this stuff is. Freedom, that being treated the same no matter who you are, whether you’re the poorest person or the richest person, the presumption of innocence, something that’s thrown away with cancel culture, got to fight these things,” Ms Badenoch said on a recent podcast. “And I know what it is like to live in a place that doesn’t have these things.”

The British politician added, “So it’s very, very precious. And I will die to protect those things. And I don’t want the UK being turned into the sort of place that everybody else is running from.”

Ms Badenoch has received constant backlash from many Nigerians, including public figures, in recent months due to her often criticism of the West African country for its rampant corruption and volatile security climate when discussing Nigeria in the British media.

Many deemed most of Ms Badenoch’s comments about Nigeria as unflattering. The vice-president from the Boko Haram heartland of Borno has criticised Mrs Badenoch for her comments.