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Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, has revealed that her children are unable to acquire Nigerian citizenship through her because of what she describes as gender-based restrictions in Nigerian nationality law.
Speaking during an interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, Badenoch used her personal experience to underscore what she called inconsistencies and imbalances in global immigration systems, particularly between the UK and countries like Nigeria.
“It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship,” she said. “I have that citizenship by virtue of my parents, I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman.”
Badenoch, who was born in the UK to Nigerian parents and spent part of her childhood in Lagos, criticized what she sees as leniency in the British immigration framework. She argued that the UK has, for too long, made it too easy for people to acquire citizenship, in contrast to more restrictive policies in many of the countries from which immigrants arrive.
“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,” she stated.
“That is why under my leadership, we now have policies to make it harder to just get British citizenship. It has been too easy.”
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Pressed on whether she would support efforts by immigrants to recreate “mini-Nigeria” communities within the UK in the name of cultural expression or integration, Badenoch firmly rejected the idea.
“That is not right. Nigerians would not tolerate that,” she said. “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.”
Badenoch’s remarks have sparked fresh debate around gender equity in nationality laws and the broader challenges of immigration policy reform.
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