Kemi Badenoch, leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, has claimed that she is unable to transfer her Nigerian citizenship to her children because of her gender.
Badenoch made the comment in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, as she discussed immigration policies and the differences between Britain and countries like Nigeria.
She said: “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.”
Badenoch used the example to highlight what she described as the imbalance in immigration systems, noting that many Nigerians take advantage of the UK’s more lenient processes.
“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 said.
When asked if she would support the idea of a Nigerian immigrant recreating a “mini-Nigeria” in the UK for cultural integration, Badenoch firmly rejected the notion.
“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.
Badenoch was born in the UK to Nigerian parents and spent part of her childhood in Lagos.
