“My Children Can’t Get Nigerian Citizenship Because I’m a Woman”: Kemi Badenoch Reacts

• Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK Conservative Party, has spotlighted gender-based restrictions in Nigeria’s nationality laws, citing her inability to transfer her citizenship to her children
• During a CNN interview, she compared Nigeria’s rigid system to Britain’s lenient immigration policies, calling for stricter controls under her leadership
• Badenoch also firmly rejected cultural enclaves in the UK, stressing that behaviours tolerated abroad should not be imported

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, has voiced strong criticisms of immigration systems and nationality laws, pointing to what she described as glaring inequalities between Britain and Nigeria.

Speaking on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday, Badenoch addressed the topic of citizenship and migration, revealing that her gender prevents her from passing Nigerian citizenship to her children.

“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.”

She used this personal example to contrast the restrictive nature of Nigerian policies with the more relaxed pathways to citizenship in the UK.

Nigerians exploiting lenient British policies, claims Badenoch

Badenoch noted that large numbers of Nigerian nationals arrive in Britain and successfully gain British citizenship through what she described as “relatively free” migration policies.

“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 said.

Highlighting her own leadership role, she added that her administration had introduced tougher measures to make the process more stringent.

“That is why under my leadership, we now have policies to make it harder to just get British citizenship. It has been too easy.”

Mini-Nigeria concept rejected by Badenoch

When asked about the idea of encouraging the creation of a “mini-Nigeria” in the UK to aid cultural integration, Badenoch firmly rejected the proposal, arguing that such a model would not be tolerated by either Nigerians or other countries.

“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.”

Kemi Badenoch was born in the United Kingdom to Nigerian parents and spent part of her early life in Lagos. Her insights during the interview shed light on her broader philosophy surrounding migration, identity and national integration.

Source: Legit.ng