Edo commissioner faults UK’s Badenoch over opposition to slavery apology, reparations

The Edo State Commissioner for Education, Washington Osifo, has criticised the leader of the United Kingdom Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, over her opposition to Britain formally apologising for its role in the transatlantic slave trade and paying reparations to its victims.

Mr Osifo accused Ms Badenoch of distorting history by placing responsibility for the slave trade on African kingdoms and merchants alongside European powers, arguing that this position fails to distinguish between African collaborators and the European powers that created and sustained the transatlantic system.

The commissioner made the criticism in a paper dated 10 November, titled The Victim Who Is Asked to Apologise to Her Rapist: A Critique of Kemi Badenoch’s Doctrine on Slavery, History and Moral Inversion, which he forwarded on Tuesday to PREMIUM TIMES.

Ms Badenoch had argued that slavery was an evil involving participants from different continents and questioned whether Caribbean countries demanding an apology from Britain would also seek apologies from descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from enslaved Africans.

She also rejected calls for financial reparations, arguing that British taxpayers today should not be held financially responsible for events that happened generations before they were born.

The Conservative leader further cited Britain’s leading role in ending the transatlantic slave trade as a reason the country should not be expected to apologise or pay compensation.

Reacting, Mr Osifo acknowledged that some African rulers and merchants participated in the trade but said that their involvement should not be equated with the role of European powers that created the international market, supplied the ships and weapons, financed the trade and created the legal and economic structures that sustained racialised slavery.

“Participation is not authorship. Collaboration under duress is not creation,” he argued.

He maintained that Africa and the Caribbean should be regarded as victims of the transatlantic slave trade rather than jointly blamed for the system, which he said fundamentally transformed global economic and racial relations.

Mr Osifo also challenged Ms Badenoch’s reliance on Britain’s abolitionist record to defend its historical conduct.

He argued that Britain’s eventual abolition of the slave trade should not erase its earlier role in the forced transportation and exploitation of millions of Africans.

He cited the £20 million compensation paid by the British government to slave owners following the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, noting that the enslaved people themselves received no compensation.

According to him, the compensation represented a major historical injustice because Britain paid those who owned enslaved people rather than the people whose freedom had been taken away.

He further noted that the loan used to finance the compensation was not fully repaid until 2015, meaning British taxpayers, including descendants of enslaved Africans, contributed to the repayment of money originally paid to slave owners.

On Ms Badenoch’s argument that contemporary British taxpayers should not bear responsibility for historical crimes, Mr Osifo invoked the principle of continuity of state responsibility.

He insisted that Britain remains the same state that enacted the laws, facilitated the trade and accumulated wealth from slavery, and continues to benefit from institutions and assets developed during that period.

The commissioner said reparations should not be reduced to demands for financial compensation, listing formal apologies, the return of looted African artefacts, investments in education and healthcare, historical truth and guarantees against the recurrence of exploitation as components of reparative justice.

He also faulted Ms Badenoch’s comparison of reparations with previous international debt relief initiatives, arguing that debt cancellation and reparations address different issues.

While debt relief concerns obligations between creditors and debtor countries, he said reparations seek to address historical injustice and its enduring consequences.

Mr Osifo further accused the Conservative leader of allowing political considerations to influence her position on slavery, suggesting that her defence of Britain’s historical record was shaped by her political ambitions within the British Conservative Party.

However, he did not provide evidence in the paper to prove her personal motivations.

Ms Badenoch’s comments have reignited debate over Britain’s historical responsibility for the transatlantic slave trade, particularly following renewed calls for a formal apology and reparations from Caribbean and African countries.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in March that Ms Badenoch criticised Britain’s abstention from a United Nations General Assembly resolution recognising the transatlantic slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity and calling for reparatory justice.

The resolution, introduced by Ghana, received 123 votes in favour, while three countries voted against it and 52 abstained. Nigeria was among the countries that supported it.

Ms Badenoch had argued that Britain should have voted against the resolution, insisting that the country helped lead the fight to end slavery and should not pay reparations for a crime it helped eradicate.

More recently, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham expressed openness to a formal apology for Britain’s role in the slave trade, although he ruled out financial reparations.

King Charles III also described the transatlantic slave trade as a shameful chapter in history, saying it filled his heart with horror and his soul with profound personal sorrow.

Ms Badenoch, 46, is Nigerian by birth and heritage. Born in England, she was raised by her Yoruba parents in Lagos, South-west Nigeria, before returning to England at 16. However, she says she no longer identifies as Nigerian.

“I know the country very well, I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” Ms Badenoch said in 2025. “But home is where my now family is.”

Mr Osifo, a lawyer and political scientist, is a member of the Edo State Executive Council.