The Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has claimed that her office reached out to the newly-elected UK Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, but received no response.
Dabiri-Erewa revealed this while speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday.
She also made it clear that the Nigerian government will not compel Badenoch to embrace her Nigerian roots.
“It depends on whether she embraces her Nigerian identity. We reached out to her once or twice, but there was no response. We don’t force anyone to acknowledge being Nigerian,” Dabiri-Erewa said.
“We are open to working with anyone who sees themselves as Nigerian, but it’s not something we can force.”
Badenoch was born in London in 1980, but spent part of her childhood in Lagos and the US.