UK Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, says she no longer considers herself Nigerian and does not hold a Nigerian passport.
Badenoch admitted that although her ancestry is Nigerian and she spent part of her upbringing in the country, she does not identify as Nigerian.
“I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth, despite not being born there because of my parents, but by identity, I’m not really.
“I know the country very well, I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” Badenoch said on the Rosebud podcast hosted by Gyles Brandreth.
Born in Wimbledon, London, in 1980, the politician said that she had not renewed her Nigerian passport in over two decades.
Badenoch spent a significant part of her childhood in Nigeria and the United States before returning to the UK at the age of 16.
“I know the country [Nigeria] very well, I have a lot of family there, and I’m very interested in what happens there,” she stated.
Despite her roots, she emphasised a personal sense of detachment from the West African country.