Presidential aide, Dada Olusegun, has called out UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch for her recent claim that she cannot pass Nigerian citizenship to her children due to her gender.
Speaking during an interview on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday, Badenoch argued that it is “virtually impossible” to obtain Nigerian citizenship, stating that despite being Nigerian by birth, she cannot confer that status on her children because she is a woman.
She said, “I can’t give [Nigerian citizenship] to my children because I’m a woman,” while comparing the relative ease with which Nigerians acquire British citizenship.
Reacting on Monday via his X handle, Olusegun accused Badenoch of misrepresenting Nigerian law and attempting to malign her country of origin.
“Aunty @KemiBadenoch, why do you continue to lie against your motherland?” he wrote. “Chapter 3, Section 25(1)(c) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution clearly states that if a Nigerian woman is a citizen by birth, her children are also Nigerian by descent, regardless of the father’s nationality.”
Olusegun noted that Nigerian citizenship by birth is conferred through either parent, not limited by gender. Under Section 25, children born abroad to Nigerian mothers automatically qualify for citizenship, provided the mother is a citizen by birth.
Badenoch, born in the UK to Nigerian parents and raised in Lagos before returning to Britain at age 16, currently serves as the UK’s Business and Trade Secretary. She is married to a Scottish banker, Hamish Badenoch, and has three children.
Nigerian law also supports dual citizenship for those born as Nigerians. However, the same constitutional provisions do not extend automatic citizenship to foreign men married to Nigerian women, unlike women married to Nigerian men.
Critics have pointed out that Badenoch’s public mischaracterisation of Nigerian law could contribute to damaging stereotypes and misinform global audiences.
