Leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has stated that she is unable to confer Nigerian citizenship on her children due to gender-based legal restrictions in Nigeria.
Badenoch made the comment during a Sunday interview on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, where she drew comparisons between Nigeria’s immigration system and the United Kingdom’s, criticizing what she termed British leniency.
“There are many people who come to our country, to the UK, who do things that would not be acceptable in their countries,” she remarked.
Pressed on whether she would support Nigerian immigrants recreating a “mini-Nigeria” in the UK as part of cultural integration, she responded, “That is not right. Nigerians would not tolerate that. That’s not something that many countries would accept.”
To highlight the double standard, Badenoch cited her inability to pass on Nigerian citizenship to her children despite holding it herself.
“It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship. I have that citizenship by virtue of my parents, I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman,” she said. “Yet loads of Nigerians come to the UK and stay for a relatively free period of time, acquire British citizenship. We need to stop being naive.”
Badenoch, who has three children with her husband Hamish Badenoch, further declared that she would make the process of acquiring British citizenship “a lot harder” if elected Prime Minister.
Born in London in 1980 to Yoruba parents, Badenoch spent part of her childhood in Nigeria before returning to the UK at age 16. She has held cabinet roles under Prime Ministers Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak between 2022 and 2024.
What You Should Know
Kemi Badenoch’s comments highlight ongoing issues around gender discrimination in Nigeria’s citizenship laws. While men can pass citizenship to their children, Nigerian women currently face legal hurdles—an imbalance Badenoch used to spotlight inconsistencies in global immigration standards.
