Badenoch noted that she had a difficult time while at the school because she was leaving home and her parents for the first time.
By Kehinde Okeowo
United Kingdom Conservative Party Leader, Kemi Badenoch, has shared her feelings about her time as a student of Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Sagamu, Ogun State, saying it was like a prison experience for her.
She made this known in a now viral video clip of an interview circulating on social media.
According to her, the period was a difficult time for her because she was leaving home and her parents for the first time.
The British politician added that she was made to cut the grass and wash the toilet with no running water while at the school.
While speaking about her time at the institution, Badenoch said, “I went to a secondary school, it was called a federal government girls school in a place called Sagamu.
“And that was like being in prison when I tell the stories about using a machete and having to fetch buckets of water.
“And that was the first time that I was away from home, away from my family. It’s a federal boarding school. And it was a dormitory with about 150 [girls] I think, 20 to 30 in a room. And there were, you know, six rooms.”
She added, “The machete was for cutting the grass. Well, because, who else is going to cut the grass?
“This is a federal school where, this old grammar school system sort of fading out, and everyone who passed an exam and got a certain school, got to go to a federal school.
“And this was more socialism. So they sprinkled people around. They didn’t want one school getting all the best results. They would mix people about so you could end up getting sent thousands of miles away to a boarding school, you know, at the extreme end of the country.
“So I was lucky. I didn’t get sent too far away, but I was very far from home. I’d never been away from home before, and it was like Lord of the Flies, you know, the students were in control.
“We needed to look after the school grounds. So using a machete, having to clean toilets with no running water. I’m not going to go into the description of that.”
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.
