UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said she no longer identifies as Nigerian and has not renewed her Nigerian passport since the early 2000s.
Speaking on the Rosebud podcast hosted by former MP and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, Badenoch explained that although she is Nigerian by ancestry, she does not connect with the country as part of her personal identity.
“I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth despite not being born there because of my parents,” she said. “But by identity, I’m not really.”
Badenoch, who was born in the United Kingdom, spent part of her childhood in Nigeria and the United States before returning to the UK at the age of 16. She cited Nigeria’s worsening political and economic situation, as well as the desire to continue her education, as reasons for her return.
The Conservative leader said that while she knows Nigeria well and remains interested in its affairs, she no longer sees it as home. “I know the country very well, I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” she said. “But home is where my now family is.”
On her decision not to renew her Nigerian passport, she added: “Most of my life has been in the UK, and I’ve just never felt the need to. I don’t identify with it anymore.”
Badenoch also recalled the experience of applying for a visa to enter Nigeria when her father died, describing it as “a big fandango.”
Reflecting on her early years in Nigeria, Badenoch said those experiences shaped her political views — including her opposition to socialism. “I remember never quite feeling that I belonged there,” she said. “When I came back to the UK in 1996, I thought: this is home.”
She noted that her parents’ decision to send her back to the UK was driven by despair over Nigeria’s future at the time. “It was a very sad one,” she said. “My parents thought: ‘There is no future for you in this country.’”
Badenoch emphasized that she never experienced meaningful racial prejudice in the UK. “I knew I was going to a place where I would look different to everybody, and I didn’t think that that was odd,” she said. “What I found actually quite interesting was that people didn’t treat me differently. It’s why I’m so quick to defend the UK whenever there are accusations of racism.”
Her recent remarks follow previous controversy in 2024, when she said Nigeria was plagued by fear, insecurity, and corruption during her childhood. At the time, Vice-President Kashim Shettima responded, accusing her of denigrating her country of origin. Badenoch’s spokesperson rejected the criticism, and she has stood by her comments since.