Why my children can’t get Nigerian citizenship — Kemi Badenoch

Leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she cannot transfer her Nigerian citizenship to her children due to her gender.

Badenoch made the remark in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday while discussing immigration policies and drawing comparisons between Britain and countries like Nigeria.

“It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship,” she said. “I have that citizenship by virtue of my parents, I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman.”

She cited the experience as an example of what she called imbalance in global immigration systems, arguing that many Nigerians benefit from the UK’s comparatively lenient approach.

“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,” 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.”

ALSO READ: ‘Eleyi of Ogun State’: Tinubu thanks Gov Abiodun for taking care of late Awujale

When asked whether she would support the idea of Nigerian immigrants establishing a “mini-Nigeria” in the UK as a means of cultural integration, Badenoch was unequivocal in her response.

“That is not right. Nigerians would not tolerate that,” she said. “That’s not something that many countries would accept.

“There are many people who come to our country, to the UK, who do things that would not be acceptable in their countries.”

Badenoch, who was born in the UK to Nigerian parents and spent part of her childhood in Lagos, has become a prominent voice on issues of immigration and identity within British politics.

ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE