The Presidency has responded sharply to British Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch after she claimed she couldn’t bestow Nigerian citizenship on her children, citing her gender as a barrier. They dismissed her statement as incorrect and sarcastically suggested the UK send her back to Nigeria for "proper re-education.”

Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, voiced his disagreement on his X account Monday, criticising Badenoch’s comments made in a CNN interview with Fareed Zakaria. He asserted that her comments inaccurately portrayed Nigerian law and called for an apology.

“Kemi Badenoch lied. She owes her fatherland some apology,” Onanuga wrote. “Britain should send our lost daughter Kemi Badenoch home for a proper re-education.”

According to Section 25 of Nigeria's 1999 Constitution (as amended), a person born abroad is automatically a Nigerian citizen if at least one parent is a Nigerian citizen, regardless of the parent's gender.

“Section 25 of our constitution defines who has the right to Nigerian citizenship… Every person born outside Nigeria, either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria,” Onanuga stated, quoting directly from the law.

Badenoch, who was born in the United Kingdom to Nigerian parents, claimed during a CNN interview that her children are ineligible for Nigerian citizenship through her due to her gender.

“It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship. I have that citizenship by virtue of my parents. I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman,” she claimed.

Onanuga then commended Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a Nigerian-British lawyer and political activist, for her public correction of Badenoch, describing her intervention as "enlightening."

Badenoch, who spent part of her childhood in Nigeria before returning to the UK at the age of 16, is married to a Scottish banker and has three children.

ASA