UK PM's 1999 views on Nigerian obsession with money pops up

As he works to deliver the much awaited divorce of the United Kingdom from the European Union, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decade-old views deemed insulting to Nigerians has surfaced.

The man who has vowed to deliver Brexit has been accused of making “racist and offensive” comments by implying Nigerians are obsessed with money. His controversial views date 20 years ago when he was a journalist.

In an October 1999 article he wrote as Editor of the Spectator, Boris took a swipe at young Brits but in so doing compared them to Nigerians saying that young people “have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds.”

In another column which has come to light, Johnson blamed single mothers for “producing a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children”, saying that social housing was an enticement for them to become pregnant.

The prime minister has been under pressure in recent months over a series of comments he made during his career as a columnist, writer and editor, including referring to black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles” and arguing Islam has caused the Muslim world to be “literally centuries behind” the west.

Critics have bashed Johnson for his comments which they say follow a pattern of sexist and misogynistic words and behaviour.