The leader of the United Kingdom Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, said he cannot transfer her Nigerian citizenship to her children due to their gender.
Badenoch made the comment in an interview with the Fareed Zakaria of CNN on Sunday while discussing immigration policies and the drawing of comparisons between Great Britain and countries like Nigeria.
“It is practically impossible, for example, to obtain Nigerian citizenship,” he said. “I have that citizenship under my parents, I can’t give it to my children because I am a woman.”
She cited experience as an example of what she called imbalance in global immigration systems, arguing that many Nigerians benefit from the relatively indulgent approach to the United Kingdom.
“However, many of the Nigerians come to the United Kingdom and remain for a relatively free period of time, British citizenship acquire. We need to stop being naive,” he said. “That is why under my leadership, we now have policies to hinder British citizenship. It has been too easy.”
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When asked if he would support the idea that Nigerian immigrants established a “Mini Nigeria” in the United Kingdom as a means of cultural integration, Badenoch was unequivocal in his response.
“That’s not right. The Nigerians wouldn’t tolerate that,” he said. “That is not something that many countries would accept.
“There are many people who come to our country, to the United Kingdom, who do things that would not be acceptable in their countries.”
Badenoch, who was born in the United Kingdom of Nigerian parents and spent part of his childhood in Lagos, has become a prominent voice on issues of immigration and identity within British policy.
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