Why My Children Can’t Become Nigerian Citizens — Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, has expressed frustration over her inability to pass on her Nigerian citizenship to her children due to gender-based legal restrictions.

Speaking during an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, Badenoch highlighted the disparity in immigration and citizenship policies between the UK and countries like Nigeria.

She said, “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.”

Badenoch used her personal experience to illustrate what she called the unfairness and imbalance in some global immigration systems. She contrasted this with the UK’s more accessible path to citizenship, which she said has been too generous.

“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,” she said.

“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.

Asked about the prospect of immigrants recreating “mini-Nigeria” communities in the UK as a form of cultural integration, Badenoch dismissed the idea.

“That is not right. Nigerians would not tolerate that, that’s not something that many countries would accept. Many people come to our country, to the UK, who do things that would not be acceptable in their countries,” she said

Born in the UK to Nigerian parents, Badenoch spent part of her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria.

Why My Children Can’t Become Nigerian Citizens — Kemi Badenoch is first published on The Whistler Newspaper