United Kingdom Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has come under fire following controversial comments about Nigerian citizenship laws during a televised interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
The British lawmaker claimed that she could not pass on Nigerian citizenship to her children because she is a woman. “I have [Nigerian] citizenship by virtue of my parents. I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman,” she said. Badenoch further asserted, “It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship… Yet loads of Nigerians come to the UK and stay for a relatively free period of time, acquire British citizenship. We need to stop being naive.”
Her remarks have drawn sharp criticism from Nigerian legal experts, constitutional authorities, and members of the public, who argue that her interpretation is not only inaccurate but also misleading.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, described Badenoch’s claims as “a display of utter ignorance.”
“Contrary to her misleading claim, her children are Nigerians because she is a Nigerian,” Falana said in a statement issued Monday. “Her assertion that she cannot give Nigerian citizenship to her children because she is a woman is not in consonance with Section 25(b) and (c) of the Nigerian Constitution.”
According to Section 25(1)(c) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), any person born outside Nigeria is a Nigerian citizen if either parent or grandparent is a Nigerian. The law makes no gender distinction.
Falana added: “The fact that she may not want them to claim it is irrelevant. For now, they are dual citizens of Britain and Nigeria.”
Also reacting, Dada Olusegun, Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on social media, accused Badenoch of deliberately misrepresenting Nigeria’s laws.
“Your children, whether born in Nigeria or abroad, are Nigerian citizens by descent, automatically under Section 25 of the Nigerian Constitution,” he wrote via X. “Why do you continue to lie against your motherland?”
Former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, also weighed in, criticising Badenoch’s attempt to “score political points at Nigeria’s expense.” He wrote:
“Why should Kemi Badenoch be bothered about getting a Nigerian citizenship for her offspring from a country she rebuked and rejected? She should just enjoy her adopted home and leave us alone in our father’s home.”
The Nigerian Constitution offers three pathways to citizenship: by birth (descent), by registration, and by naturalisation.
Under Section 25, citizenship by descent applies to anyone born abroad if either the father or mother is a Nigerian citizen. Section 42(1) further prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, ensuring equal rights for both men and women.
“No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any form of disability or restriction by reason of the circumstances of his birth, sex, religion or political opinion.” Section 42(1), 1999 Constitution
This confirms that Nigerian women can legally confer citizenship to their children without restriction.
However, while the law is clear on descent, a notable gender-based disparity exists in spousal citizenship.
Section 26(2)(a) provides that a foreign woman married to a Nigerian man can acquire citizenship by registration. But there is no equivalent provision for a foreign man married to a Nigerian woman.
Falana acknowledged this loophole, noting, “A woman married to a Nigerian man can be registered as a citizen, but the same privilege is not extended to a man married to a Nigerian woman. This reflects the patriarchal nature of the law, which should be urgently amended.”
Legal scholars and civil society groups have long demanded reforms to eliminate this bias, citing Nigeria’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Beyond birth and marriage, Nigerian citizenship can also be obtained through naturalisation, as outlined in Section 27. The requirements include:
Residency in Nigeria for at least 15 years
Demonstration of good character and integration
Familiarity with civic responsibilities
Despite these legal provisions, Nigeria grants relatively few citizenships each year. According to a September 2022 Federal Executive Council report, only 286 foreign nationals were granted Nigerian citizenship 208 by naturalisation and 78 by registration.
By contrast, the United Kingdom granted over 175,000 citizenships in 2022, including more than 8,700 to Nigerians, according to UK Home Office statistics. This disparity may have contributed to Badenoch’s comment, but experts maintain her interpretation is flawed.
Born in Wimbledon, London, in 1980 to Nigerian parents, Olukemi Adegoke (now Badenoch) spent her early childhood in Lagos before returning to the UK at age 16. She is married to Scottish banker Hamish Badenoch and currently serves as the UK’s Secretary of State for Business and Trade.
Her growing profile within the Conservative Party has been marked by strong anti-migration rhetoric often directed at African and Commonwealth immigration. Her latest remarks have been seen by some as politically expedient ahead of Britain’s upcoming elections.
Legal experts maintain that Kemi Badenoch’s central claim that Nigerian women cannot transmit citizenship is factually inaccurate and legally unsupported. Section 25 of the Constitution provides equal parental rights in this context, and Section 42 reinforces gender equality.
However, the debate has reignited calls to reform gender-discriminatory provisions, especially those related to spousal rights under Section 26.
As Femi Falana summarised, “Her children are Nigerian by law, whether or not she wants them to be.”
