A senior aide to Nigeria’s president has condemned British Conservative minister Kemi Badenoch over her recent comments about Nigerian citizenship laws, accusing her of spreading falsehoods and misrepresenting her country of origin.
During an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, Badenoch, the UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade, suggested that Nigerian nationality laws discriminate against women.
She claimed that while she holds Nigerian citizenship through her parents, she is unable to pass it on to her children because she is a woman. Badenoch also described Nigeria’s citizenship process as “virtually impossible,” comparing it unfavorably to the British system, which she said is more accessible to Nigerians.
In a swift rebuttal posted on social media Monday, Dada Olusegun, a special assistant to the Nigerian president, denounced Badenoch’s claims as “dangerous misrepresentation.”
Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Olusegun accused the minister of lying about Nigerian law and damaging the country’s image.
Quoting Section 25(1)(c) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, Olusegun emphasized that Nigerian citizenship by descent is granted to individuals born outside the country if either parent is a Nigerian citizen by birth regardless of the parent’s gender.
“Kemi Badenoch is wrong,” Olusegun stated. “If a Nigerian woman is a citizen by birth, her children born anywhere in the world are Nigerian. Gender has no bearing in this context.”
Badenoch, who was born in the UK to Nigerian parents and spent part of her childhood in Lagos, has long acknowledged her Nigerian roots. However, her latest remarks have sparked outrage among Nigerians, many of whom viewed her comments as uninformed and dismissive of constitutional realities.
While Nigeria’s citizenship laws do make distinctions based on gender in certain contexts particularly regarding foreign spouses constitutional provisions make it clear that citizenship by descent through a Nigerian mother is not in question.
Badenoch has not responded publicly to the criticism.
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