Presidential Aide Tackles UK Minister Over Wrong Claim On Nigerian Citizenship

Presidential aide Dada Olusegun has criticised UK politician Kemi Badenoch for her remarks about Nigerian citizenship laws, accusing her of spreading false claims about her country of origin.

Badenoch, who leads the Conservative Party in the UK and serves as a senior minister, said in a CNN interview that she is unable to pass Nigerian citizenship to her children because she is a woman. She added that foreigners find it nearly impossible to become Nigerian citizens, while Nigerians easily obtain British citizenship.

Olusegun responded on social media, stating that Badenoch’s comments misrepresent Nigeria’s constitution. He argued that her statement was not only wrong but part of a troubling pattern of negative remarks about Nigeria.

The controversy centers around Section 25 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, which says that any person born outside Nigeria to a Nigerian parent is a citizen by birth. This applies equally to mothers and fathers. Olusegun referenced this clause to show that children of Nigerian women, including those born abroad, are legally Nigerian citizens.

Badenoch, who was born in the UK to Nigerian parents, spent her early years in Lagos before moving back to Britain at 16. She is married to a Scottish man and has three children, all born in the UK.

Despite her claims, the law clearly states that a child born to a Nigerian mother is entitled to citizenship by descent, without needing to apply for naturalisation or registration. The father’s nationality does not affect this right.

Nigeria also permits dual citizenship under certain conditions. Citizens by birth can take another nationality and still keep their Nigerian citizenship. But the same does not apply to those who gained Nigerian citizenship through naturalisation or registration — they may lose it if they acquire another.

While the Nigerian Constitution does limit citizenship by marriage based on gender — allowing foreign women married to Nigerian men to gain citizenship more easily — this rule does not affect children of Nigerian citizens. Badenoch’s comments appear to confuse these separate provisions.

Her husband would not automatically be eligible for Nigerian citizenship through marriage, unlike a foreign woman married to a Nigerian man. But their children, with a Nigerian mother and Nigerian grandparents, automatically qualify as Nigerians.

The dispute has sparked conversations online about citizenship rights and public figures’ responsibility to represent facts correctly when speaking about their home countries.