Nigerian declares bid to succeed Boris Johnson as British PM

A Nigerian former British Minister for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, has joined the race to become the country’s next Prime Minister when the embattled Boris Johnson formally steps down in September.

Ms. Badenoch, who was born Olukemi Olufunto to Nigerian parents in Wimbledon, London, was one of the 60 members of the United Kingdom parliament and aides who resigned last week following a scandal involving Johnson’s appointment of a colleague facing sexual assault allegations to a prominent role.

Badenoch’s bid to become the next British prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party has attracted several public endorsements from colleagues and some British lawmakers including Neil O’Brien, the MP for Harborough, Michael Gove, the MP for Surrey Heath and Gareth Bacon, the MP for Orpington.

The 42-year-old while announcing her bid for the UK’s top job in an article published in The Times Newspaper, said she was putting herself forward because she was “exhausted by platitudes and empty rhetoric.”

READ ALSO: British PM, Boris Johnson, to resign as party leader

She said: “I’m putting myself forward in this leadership election because I want to tell the truth. It’s the truth that will set us free.

“Without change in the Conservative Party, Britain and the western world will continue to drift and rivals will outpace us economically and outmanoeuvre us internationally.”

Badenoch had previously served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education.

She was also a former Vice-Chair of the Conservative Party and former member of the Justice Select Committee.

Prior to her election as a Member of Parliament, she was a Conservative member of the London Assembly, acting as the GLA Conservative’s spokesperson for the economy.

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