Kemi Badenoch admits she doesn’t view herself as Nigerian, even after growing up there

Kemi Badenoch admits she doesn’t view herself as Nigerian, even after growing up there

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has revealed that she does not identify as Nigerian by nationality and stopped renewing her Nigerian passport in the early 2000s. Speaking on the Rosebud podcast, she explained that although she is Nigerian by descent—her parents hail from Lagos—and spent her early years there, most of her adult life and sense of belonging have been rooted in the UK.

Born in Wimbledon in 1980, Badenoch moved as an infant with her family to Lagos, where she spent her formative years before relocating temporarily to the United States. At age 16, she returned to Britain to pursue her A-levels under the care of a family friend, following her parents’ belief that Nigeria offered her little future amid political and economic instability. It was then she discovered she held British citizenship by right of birth, a status many of her peers found astonishing given that Margaret Thatcher abolished automatic birthright nationality just months later.

On the podcast, Badenoch said she last renewed her Nigerian passport around 2002 and simply never saw a reason to replace it since building her life in Britain. “I’m Nigerian through ancestry and birth—my parents registered me—but by identity I’m not really Nigerian,” she said. She added that while she remains deeply interested in developments back home and maintains strong family ties in Lagos, “home is where my current family is”—namely her husband, children, brother, in-laws and the Conservative Party, which she regards as an extension of her family.

When her father, Dr Femi Adegoke, passed away in Lagos in 2022, Badenoch described the bureaucratic process of obtaining a visa to attend his funeral as “a big fandango,” underscoring the practical challenges that now separate her from the country of her heritage. She has occasionally clashed with Nigerian officials over her commentary on corruption and governance; last year Vice-President Kashim Shettima quipped that she might as well drop “Kemi” from her name if she no longer felt pride in her Nigerian roots.

Reflecting on her childhood in Lagos, Badenoch painted a portrait of a nation beleaguered by military rule, where “fear was everywhere” and graft coloured daily life. Yet she has said she never quite felt fully at home there, a sentiment that spurred her parents to seek a more secure future for their daughter in Britain.

On arriving in the UK, Badenoch found that her appearance set her apart, but she did not encounter significant racism. “People treated me no differently than anyone else,” she recalled. That experience, she explained, made her a staunch defender of Britain in debates over racial inequality and discrimination. “I didn’t experience prejudice in any meaningful form—though I know it exists for many. I was fortunate, and that shaped my view of this country.”

Describing the parliamentary party as an “extended family with lots of drama,” Badenoch emphasized that her political home and personal life are now inseparable. Despite her Nigerian heritage and an abiding concern for its future, her primary identity, she says, is tied to her life, career and loved ones in the UK.