British Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, insists she no longer considers herself Nigerian and has not held a Nigerian passport in over 20 years.
Speaking on the Rosebud podcast, Badenoch said her identity is now fully rooted in the United Kingdom, where she was born and now serves as a government minister.
“I have not renewed my Nigerian passport, I think, not since the early 2000s,” she said. “I don’t identify with it anymore. Most of my life has been in the UK and I’ve just never felt the need to.”
“I Never Quite Felt I Belonged There”
Badenoch was born in Wimbledon in 1980 but raised in Lagos, where she lived until age 16. Her father, Dr Femi Adegoke, passed away in 2022. During her last visit to Nigeria for his burial, she had to apply for a visa.
“It was a big fandango,” she said with a laugh.
Despite her ancestry and familiarity with Nigeria, she added: “By ancestry, I’m Nigerian. By birth—technically—but by identity, I’m not really. I know the country very well. I have a lot of family there. I’m interested in what happens there. But home is where my now family is.”
Her “now family”, she explained, includes her husband, children, brother, nieces and nephews, and in-laws—all based in the UK.
“The Conservative Party is also very much part of my family,” she said. “It’s instinct. We recognise each other. We have the same sort of squabbles. Anybody with an extended family full of drama will understand that.”
Badenoch also reflected on her years in Lagos, saying she often felt out of place.
“I remember never quite feeling that I belonged there,” she said. “The reason I came back to the UK was actually a sad one: my parents thought, ‘There’s no future for you in this country.’”
“If You’re Not Nigerian, Then Change Your Name” — Shehu Sani
Ms Badenoch’s often uncomplimentary remarks about Nigeria didn’t escape her critics either this time.
Former Senator Shehu Sani didn’t mince words. He called on her to drop her name if she no longer identifies with the country.
In a post shared on social media, he wrote: “Your name is still ‘Kemi’ and you don’t want to identify as Nigerian? That’s ok. Just bring back our name. You can change to ‘Kimberly’ or ‘Kim Kardashian’.”
Badenoch has long courted criticism in Nigeria, especially after past remarks about corruption and military misrule. In December, a Nigerian Vice President reportedly said she could remove “Kemi” from her name if she was ashamed of her roots.
At the time, her spokesman shot back: “She stands by what she says. She is not the PR for Nigeria.”
Now a leading figure in UK politics, Badenoch has said her experience growing up and living in Britain defied expectations.
“I did not experience prejudice in any meaningful form,” she told the podcast. “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but I didn’t—not seriously.”
Born just before the UK ended automatic birthright citizenship in 1981, she belongs to the last generation of British-born Nigerians to receive citizenship at birth without conditions.
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