* Kemi Badenoch
The Pathfinder
Monday August 4, 2025
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Kemi Badenoch has stated that she no longer identifies as Nigerian and does not hold a Nigerian passport. The Conservative leader, who grew up in Lagos and has Yoruba heritage, revealed that she has not had a Nigerian passport for over two decades.
During her appearance on the Rosebud podcast, Badenoch explained, “I have not renewed my Nigerian passport, I think, not since the early 2000s. I don’t identify with it anymore; most of my life has been in the UK, and I’ve just never felt the need to.”
She acknowledged her Nigerian ancestry by birth but emphasised that her true identity aligns more with her life in the UK. “I know the country very well; I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” she shared. However, she expressed that “home is where my family is now,” referring to her children, husband, brother, and in-laws. She also noted that the Conservative Party feels like an extension of her family.
When her father, Femi Adegoke, a doctor who passed away in 2022, died, Badenoch mentioned that she needed a visa to return to Nigeria, describing the process as a “big fandango.”
Badenoch was born in a private hospital in Wimbledon, South West London, in 1980, before her parents took her back to Nigeria.
She was among the last individuals to benefit from Britain’s birthright citizenship rules, which were abolished by Margaret Thatcher the following year.
Reflecting on her upbringing, Badenoch expressed that she felt both British and Nigerian while living in Lagos. “Finding out that I did have British citizenship was a marvel to many of my contemporaries and peers,” she said. She revealed that her family’s decision to return to the UK was driven by the belief that there was “no future for you in this country.”
She also shared that she never fully felt she belonged in Nigeria, stating, “I remember never quite feeling that I belonged there.”
Badenoch has previously faced criticism from Nigerian politicians regarding her comments about the country. She has often spoken about growing up in an environment affected by corruption and military dictatorship, referring to Lagos as a city where “fear was everywhere.” Last December, Nigeria’s vice president suggested that she could change her name if she was not proud to be Nigerian. Badenoch’s spokesperson later affirmed that she “stands by what she says” and is “not the PR for Nigeria.”
Having moved to the UK at the age of 16 to study, Badenoch noted that she did not experience racial prejudice in Britain “in any meaningful form.” She said, “I knew I was going to a place where I would look different from everybody, and I didn’t think that was odd. What I found quite interesting was that people didn’t treat me differently. That’s why I’m so quick to defend the UK whenever there are accusations of racism. I did not experience prejudice in any meaningful form. That doesn’t mean prejudice doesn’t exist; many people do face it, but I didn’t, not seriously.”
Badenoch described the Conservative Parliamentary party as an “extended family with lots of drama.” She sees the party as family, stating, “So much of what we do goes beyond party policy; it’s instinct. We recognise each other, we have the same sort of squabbles, and when people ask me about plots, I just think, ‘This is extended family stuff.’ Anyone with an extended family full of drama will understand.”
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