In a statement issued on Saturday, December 6, 2025, Ejiofor described Johnson’s remarks as an “imperial mindset in jaunty patter.”....TAP TO CONTINUE READING

Human rights lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has criticised former United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson over comments he made at the Economic Summit held in Owerri, Imo State, on Thursday.

In a statement issued on Saturday, December 6, 2025, Ejiofor described Johnson’s remarks as an “imperial mindset in jaunty patter.”

Johnson had declared that he felt “perfectly safe” during his visit to Nigeria, pushing back against negative security reports and global concerns over rising violence in the country.

He had said he was not deterred by warnings about Nigeria’s security situation before embarking on the trip.

Johnson’s remarks come as Nigeria struggles with renewed waves of abductions, banditry and communal attacks.

Ejiofor said Johnson delivered his remarks “with the comic timing of one who believes humour absolves impertinence, ‘huge quantities of whisky… we send you pharmaceuticals, bankers, services of all kinds and huge quantities of whiskey.’”

He also condemns Johnson’s joke about political mobility between Nigeria and the UK.

“We send you former United Kingdom prime ministers, and you send us future United Kingdom prime ministers,” making reference to Kemi Badenoch, “as a proudly Nigerian-rooted example.”

Ejiofor argued that the remarks were far from a benign reflection on trade.
“Let us be plain, what Mr Johnson said, in the round, was not an analysis of trade flows nor a felicitous toast. It was a recapitulation, in jaunty patter, of an imperial mindset that has been slow to take its leave.”

He noted that the presence of notable African figures such as Aliko Dangote and Benedict Oramah, former President of the African Export–Import Bank, “only deepened the incomity,” turning the moment into “a rhetorical microcosm of unequal memory.”

The lawyer stressed that the comments carried deep historical undertones.

“The insinuation that Britain chiefly supplies ‘whisky and pharmaceuticals’ while Nigeria supplies crude and migrants is not innocent banter; it is a shorthand evocation of centuries of asymmetric exchange,” Ejiofor said.

He added, “From the mercantilist traffick of the Atlantic age to the structural dependencies of the post-colonial era, the rhetoric resurrects a one-sided ledger in which African resources and human capital exist chiefly to service metropolitan consumption. To laugh at that ledger in 2025 is to be tone-deaf to history.”

According to Ejiofor, Johnson’s framing of partnership revived the “ordering of worth that underwrote empire,” insisting that “a leader of Mr Johnson’s pedigree ought to know better, or, at the very least, to have the tact to conceal the thinking he plainly assumes.”

He said the applause that followed the former Prime Minister’s remarks was more troubling than the comments themselves.
“Applause from a largely Nigerian and African audience, including global business titans and statespersons, betrays either a willingness to normalise condescension for the sake of conviviality, or the old transactional calculus where social currency is earned by pleasing power.”
The human rights lawyer also faulted what he described as muted reactions from African elites at the summit, saying such silence reflected “a theatre of complicity.”

“What should follow is not furore for its own sake, but corrective candour,” he stated.
Ejiofor outlined several recommendations for future engagements with international figures, including “Demand nuance from visiting statesmen,” noting that “If one is invited to speak at an economic summit, one should be called upon to contribute analysis, policy ideas, or, at the very least, modesty. Public appearances carry public responsibilities.”

“Reframe the narrative of exchange. Trade statistics are not mere instruments of commerce; they are narratives that shape esteem.
“Nigeria must insist that partnership be couched in capacity building, technology transfer, value addition and regulatory reciprocity, not recycled hierarchies.

“Make symbolic choices with economic teeth. If rhetoric reduces relations to bottles of spirit and token compliments, it is reasonable for consumers, regulators and purchasers in Nigeria to be mindful of where they place their custom and how they demand better terms.
“Constructive reciprocity is the right path; symbolic sanctions may be an instrument where necessary.”