Kemi Badenoch, leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, has revealed that her children cannot acquire Nigerian citizenship through her because of discriminatory nationality laws that deny women equal rights to pass citizenship to their offspring.
Badenoch, who is of Nigerian descent, made the revelation during an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, where she discussed immigration policies, cultural integration, and her leadership vision for Britain.
“It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship. I have that citizenship by virtue of my parents, but I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman,” Badenoch said.
She used Nigeria’s nationality laws as an example to highlight what she described as “imbalances and double standards” in global immigration systems.
“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. That is why under my leadership, we now have policies to make it harder to just get British citizenship. It has been too easy,” she added.
Rejects “mini-Nigeria” idea in the UK
When asked if she would support Nigerian immigrants creating a “mini-Nigeria” within the UK in the name of cultural integration, Badenoch rejected the idea outright.
“That is not right. Nigerians would not tolerate that in their own country,” she said.
“There are many people who come to our country, to the UK, who do things that would not be acceptable in their countries. We need to be firm about what we allow.”
Badenoch was born in Wimbledon, London, to Nigerian parents—her father, Femi Adegoke, a GP, and her mother, Feyi Adegoke, a professor of physiology. She spent a significant part of her childhood in Lagos and returned to the UK at 16. Her political rise has been meteoric, culminating in her election as Conservative Party leader in 2025, following her tenure as the UK’s Business and Trade Secretary.
The politician’s remarks have drawn renewed attention to Nigeria’s nationality laws, which remain largely patriarchal. Under the Nigerian constitution, citizenship by descent can typically be passed on by a father, but not by a mother, unless the father is stateless or unknown.
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