UK Conservative minister Kemi Badenoch has said she no longer identifies as Nigerian and has not renewed her Nigerian passport in over two decades, despite spending part of her childhood in Lagos.
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade, who was born in Wimbledon but raised in Nigeria, made the comments during an appearance on the Rosebud podcast hosted by Gyles Brandreth.
Now a prominent figure in British politics and often seen as a potential future leader, Ms Badenoch said her identity has become firmly rooted in the UK.
“I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth, despite not being born there because of my parents… but by identity, I’m not really,” she told Brandreth.
Badenoch explained that although she has close ties to Nigeria and still has family there, her sense of belonging is firmly with her immediate family in Britain — including her husband, children, and political colleagues in the Conservative Party.
“I have not renewed my Nigerian passport, I think, not since the early 2000s,” she added.
She said her early experiences in Nigeria during the 1990s — including economic instability and public discontent — strongly shaped her political views, particularly her opposition to socialism.
“I remember never quite feeling that I belonged there,” she recalled, reflecting on her upbringing in Lagos before returning to the UK at age 16 when Nigeria’s economy collapsed.
Ms Badenoch described having to navigate a difficult visa process when returning to Nigeria for her father’s funeral, despite once living there. Her father, Femi, had been a GP and ran his own clinic before his death.
While she remains deeply engaged with developments in Nigeria and maintains family connections there, Badenoch made clear that her identity and political home are rooted in Britain.
“Home is where my now family is, and my now family is my children, it’s my husband, and my brother and his children, in-laws. The Conservative Party is very much part of my family — my extended family, I call it,” she said.
The remarks come a year after Nigerian vice president Kashim Shettima publicly criticised Badenoch during the Conservative leadership race, accusing her of disparaging the country.
“She has every right to remove the ‘Kemi’ from her name,” Mr Shettima said at the time.
His comments followed statements Badenoch made on the campaign trail, in which she spoke critically of her experiences in Nigeria and how they shaped her political worldview.
Responding to the criticism, a spokesperson for Ms Badenoch said she was not “the PR for Nigeria” and was free to speak about her personal experiences.
Ms Badenoch has consistently maintained that her views are based on her lived reality and not intended to undermine the country she once called home.
Editing by M10News Politics Desk | Contact: politics@m10news.com
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