Kemi Badenoch says Nigeria’s law blocks her from giving citizenship to her children.
She blames gender rules and calls for tougher UK immigration laws in new CNN interview.
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, has said she is unable to pass her Nigerian citizenship to her children due to gender-based restrictions in Nigeria’s citizenship laws.
Speaking in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, Badenoch explained how her experience reflects broader issues with global immigration systems. “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 used the example to draw attention to what she called an imbalance between immigration rules in different countries. Badenoch argued that many Nigerians benefit from the UK’s more open immigration policy, something she believes should be reviewed.
“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.”
When asked whether she supports the idea of Nigerian immigrants creating a “mini-Nigeria” in the UK as a way to preserve culture, she rejected the concept.
“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 the UK and behave in ways that would not be acceptable in their own countries.”
Badenoch, who was born in the UK to Nigerian parents, also spent part of her early life in Lagos.
