My children can’t get Nigerian citizenship, but Nigerians easily get UK’s — Badenoch
By Jeffrey Agbo
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, has said that her children are unable to obtain Nigerian citizenship because of her gender.
Speaking during an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, Badenoch reflected on global immigration systems, using her own experience to highlight disparities between countries like the UK and Nigeria.
“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 example to illustrate what she called an imbalance in immigration laws and citizenship rights.
“Yet 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.
When asked whether she supports the idea of Nigerian immigrants replicating a “mini-Nigeria” in the UK to promote cultural integration, Badenoch was unequivocal in her disapproval.
“That is not right. Nigerians would not tolerate that.
“That’s not something that many countries would accept.
“There are many people who come to our country, to the UK, who do things that would not be acceptable in their countries,” she said.
