British Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has shared that she no longer considers herself Nigerian, stating that she hasn’t held a Nigerian passport in over 20 years.
In a candid conversation on the Rosebud podcast hosted by Gyles Brandreth, Badenoch reflected on her heritage and identity, explaining that while she has Nigerian ancestry and spent part of her formative years in the country, she does not view herself as Nigerian.
“I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth, despite not being born there because of my parents, but by identity I’m not really,” she said.
Born in Wimbledon, London, in 1980, Badenoch revealed that although she has deep ties to Nigeria, including family connections and cultural familiarity, she has grown increasingly detached from the country over time.
“I know the country very well, I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” she added.
Her upbringing spanned Nigeria, the United States, and later the United Kingdom, where she returned at age 16.
She belongs to the final generation of children eligible for British citizenship by birth before the rule was amended in 1981 under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Recalling her early challenges as a young adult in the UK, she shared, “The toughest thing I had to do was to fend for myself at 18.”
“Despite her childhood experience in Nigeria, Badenoch admitted she often felt like an outsider during her time there. “Never quite feeling that I belonged there,” she noted.
“Today, she says her sense of belonging is rooted firmly in the UK, especially among her immediate and political family.
“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 said.
Commenting on the significance of her British citizenship, she recalled the surprise it generated among her peers growing up, “Finding out that I did have that British citizenship was a marvel to so many of my contemporaries, so many of my peers.”