• Identity
• Kemi Badenoch
• nigeria

CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER KEMI BADENOCH SAYS SHE NO LONGER IDENTIFIES AS NIGERIAN

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  CapitalTimesNews / 6 months
• 0
• 2 min read

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, has stated that she no longer identifies as Nigerian and has not held a Nigerian passport for over two decades. Badenoch, who grew up in Lagos and is of Yoruba heritage, made the comments on the Rosebud podcast, saying, “I have not renewed my Nigerian passport, I think, not since the early 2000s. 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.” Badenoch explained that while she knows Nigeria “very well” and has an interest in what happens there, her “home is where my now family is.” She added, “I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth despite not being born there because of my parents, but by identity I’m not really.” The Tory leader was born in Wimbledon, South West London, in 1980, and her family later took her to Nigeria, where she spent her childhood. She recalled feeling both British and Nigerian while growing up in Lagos but “never quite feeling that I belonged there.” Badenoch’s comments have sparked controversy in the past, with Nigeria’s Vice-President Kashim Shettima saying that she should consider removing “Kemi” from her name if she is not proud to be from Nigeria. Badenoch’s spokesman responded, saying that the Tory leader “stands by what she says” and that she is “not the PR for Nigeria.” In the podcast, Badenoch also discussed her experiences in the UK, saying that she had not encountered racial prejudice “in any meaningful form.” She added, “I knew I was going to a place where I would look different to everybody, and I didn’t think that that was odd… What I found actually quite interesting was that people didn’t treat me differently.” Badenoch described the parliamentary party as an “extended family with lots of drama,” saying, “I do see the Conservative Party as family, so much of what we do goes beyond party policy… It’s instinct, we recognise each other, we have the same sort of squabbles.”