My identity is British, not Nigerian – Kemi Badenoch

Leader of the British Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has stated that she no longer considers herself Nigerian and does not hold a Nigerian passport.

Speaking on the Rosebud podcast hosted by Gyles Brandreth, Badenoch shared her personal perspective on identity, noting that while her roots are Nigerian and she spent part of her early life in the country, she no longer identifies with that nationality.

“My heritage is Nigerian and I lived there for a time, but I don’t see myself as Nigerian,” she said during the interview, emphasizing her alignment with British nationality and values.

“I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth, despite not being born there because of my parents, but by identity I’m not really,” she said.

The minister, who was born in Wimbledon, London, in 1980, noted that she had not renewed her Nigerian passport in more than two decades. Despite her roots, she emphasised a personal sense of detachment.

“I know the country very well, I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” she added.

Badenoch spent a significant part of her childhood in Nigeria and the United States before returning to the UK at the age of 16. She is among the last group of people to receive British birthright citizenship before the policy was abolished in 1981 by Margaret Thatcher’s government.

Reflecting on her early struggles, she recalled, “The toughest thing I had to do was to fend for myself at 18.”

Badenoch also shared her feelings of not fully belonging while living in Nigeria, saying, “Never quite feeling that I belonged there.”

Now firmly settled in the UK, she described what “home” means to her today.

She said, “But home is where my now family is, and my now family is my children, it’s my husband and my brother and his children, in-laws.

“The Conservative party is very much part of my family, my extended family, I call it.”

Read Also: Religion as a tool for national development (1) By abiodun KOMOLAFE

Touching on her citizenship status, she remarked, “Finding out that I did have that British citizenship was a marvel to so many of my contemporaries, so many of my peers.”