UK Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has addressed questions about her nationality and identity, explaining why she “no longer identifies as Nigerian.”
Speaking on former MP and television presenter Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast, she had said she was “Nigerian through ancestry” but “by identity, I’m not really”.
Clarifying the statement in an interview with GB News, Kemi, who was born in the UK and spent part of her early years in Nigeria, acknowledged her Nigerian roots but stated that she primarily sees herself as British.
“It wasn’t quite what I said. But it is true. My main identity is British. That is how I see myself.
Nigeria is a nationality, not an ethnicity. There’s no such language as Nigerian, there are many different ethnic groups there.
If you come to this country, you need to be very focused on integrating. If you’re a politician, you need to be 100 per cent focused on British issues.”
