“Home is where my now family is… my children, my husband… the Conservative Party is very much part of my family,” she added.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has said she no longer identifies as Nigerian and hasn’t held a Nigerian passport for over two decades.
Speaking on the Rosebud podcast, Badenoch, who was raised in Lagos and is of Yoruba heritage, revealed, “I have not renewed my Nigerian passport, I think, not since the early 2000s… I don’t identify with it any more.”
Born in London in 1980 before returning to Nigeria with her parents, she described herself as Nigerian by ancestry but no longer by identity. “Home is where my now family is… my children, my husband… the Conservative Party is very much part of my family,” she added.
Badenoch recalled facing difficulties returning to Nigeria when her father died in 2022: “It was a big fandango getting a visa.”
Although she once felt both British and Nigerian, she admitted: “I remember never quite feeling that I belonged there.”
She also defended Britain against racism accusations: “I did not experience prejudice in any meaningful form.”
Previously criticised by Nigerian officials for her comments on the country’s corruption and governance, Badenoch said she “stands by what she says” and is “not the PR for Nigeria.”