The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has hailed the appointment of Nigerian-born Kemi Badenoch as the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade.
Badenoch’s appointment by new UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss was announced via the Prime Minister’s official Twitter handle @10DowningStreet on Tuesday night.
The tweet read, “Kemi Badenoch MP @KemiBadenoch has been appointed Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade @TradeGovUK #reshuffle”
Reacting, Atiku said that Badenoch’s appointment renewed his belief in the abundance of the vitality of the Nigerian mind.
“It is delightful to read that PM Liz Truss has appointed Nigerian-born Kemi Badenoch MP as Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade.
“Her appointment renews my belief that the vitality of the Nigerian mind is abundant.
“It is my dream to tap from this abundant resource wherever they may be in the globe and bring them back home for the work ahead of us.
“Her appointment also gives clarity to the direction the new government in the United Kingdom will accord to issues of international trade and investments,” Atiku said in a Wednesday statement he personally signed.
The Herald recalls that during her unsuccessful race to become Prime Minister, Badenoch said that Nigerian politicians use “public money as their private piggy banks”.
“I grew up in Nigeria, and I saw first hand what happens when politicians are in it for themselves, when they use public money as their private piggy bank, when they promise the earth and pollute not just the air, but the whole political atmosphere with their failure to serve others. I saw what socialism means for millions: poverty and broken dreams,” she said.