Olayiwola Matthew
Leader of the British Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, says she no longer considers herself Nigerian and does not hold a Nigerian passport.
Speaking on the Rosebud podcast with Gyles Brandreth, Badenoch revealed that she has not renewed her Nigerian passport in over 20 years and no longer identifies as Nigerian, despite her roots and upbringing in the country.
“I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth — despite not being born there — because of my parents, but by identity I’m not, really.
“I know the country very well. I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” she said.
Badenoch, born Olukemi Adegoke in Wimbledon in 1980, spent her childhood in Lagos before moving to the United States, where her mother worked as a physiology professor.
She spent most of her early years in Nigeria and the U.S. before returning to the UK at age 16.
She is among the last individuals to have received birthright citizenship in the UK before it was abolished by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1981.
“The toughest thing I had to do was to fend for myself at 18,” she noted.
The politician also recalled a sense of disconnection during her time in Nigeria:
“Never quite feeling that I belonged there,” she said.
Now firmly rooted in the UK, Badenoch described what “home” means to her:
“Home is where my now family is. My now family is my children, my husband, my brother and his children, in-laws.
“The Conservative Party is very much part of my family — my extended family, I call it.”
Speaking about her citizenship status, she added:
“Finding out that I did have that British citizenship was a marvel to so many of my contemporaries, so many of my peers.”
Last year, responding to criticism over her stance on Nigeria, Badenoch – the first Black woman to lead a major UK political party –stated that she is “not Nigeria’s public relations representative.”