I no longer identify as Nigerian — Kemi Badenoch
By Jeffrey Agbo
British Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has stated that she no longer identifies as Nigerian and has not held a Nigerian passport for over two decades.
Speaking on the Rosebud podcast with Gyles Brandreth recently, Badenoch reflected on her personal and cultural identity, saying, “I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth, despite not being born there because of my parents, but by identity I’m not really.”
Born in Wimbledon, London, in 1980, Badenoch spent much of her childhood in Nigeria and the United States before returning to the UK at the age of 16. Despite her connection to Nigeria through her upbringing and family, she shared that she feels a sense of separation from her country of heritage.
“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 also described feeling disconnected during her time in Nigeria. “Never quite feeling that I belonged there,” she noted.
Now fully grounded in the UK, she explained what “home” means to her, saying, “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.”
She also recalled the challenges of early adulthood, remarking, “The toughest thing I had to do was to fend for myself at 18.”
Badenoch, who is among the last individuals to benefit from British birthright citizenship before its repeal in 1981, reflected on the significance of her status.
“Finding out that I did have that British citizenship was a marvel to so many of my contemporaries, so many of my peers,” she added.
