The leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has revealed that despite holding Nigerian citizenship herself, she is unable to pass it on to her children due to her gender a limitation she says reflects broader imbalances in global immigration policies.
Speaking during an interview on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday, Badenoch contrasted the UK’s immigration system with that of Nigeria, using her personal experience as a case in point.
“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,” she said.
Badenoch, who was born in the UK to Nigerian parents and spent part of her childhood in Lagos, used the moment to underscore her party’s tougher stance on immigration under her leadership.
“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.
The minister firmly pushed back when asked if she would support the idea of a Nigerian immigrant trying to recreate a “mini-Nigeria” in Britain for cultural preservation.
“That is not right. Nigerians would not tolerate that,” she responded.
“There are many people who come to our country, to the UK, who do things that would not be acceptable in their countries.”
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