Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has strongly criticized British Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, over her recent comments suggesting that Nigerian citizenship is difficult to obtain and that Nigerian women cannot transmit citizenship to their children.
Badenoch, while speaking to British voters, had stated:
“There are many people who come to our country, to the UK, who do things that would not be acceptable in their countries. It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship. I had that citizenship by virtue of my parents. I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman. Yet loads of Nigerians come to the UK, stay for a relatively brief period of time, acquire British citizenship. We need to stop being naive.”
Reacting to her remarks, Falana described the statement as “misleading and a clear display of ignorance,” adding that her children are, in fact, Nigerians under the law.
Citing Section 25(b) and (c) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), Falana explained that anyone born outside Nigeria to at least one Nigerian parent is automatically a Nigerian citizen.
“Contrary to Kemi Badenoch’s misleading claim, her children are Nigerians because she is a Nigerian. Her assertion that she cannot give Nigerian citizenship to her children because she is a woman is not in consonance with Section 25 of the Nigerian Constitution,” he said.
Falana further noted that the Constitution, in Section 42(2), prohibits discrimination based on gender, birth circumstances, or social class, and therefore Badenoch’s children cannot be denied citizenship on the basis of her gender.
“Like Kemi Badenoch, her two children are Nigerian citizens. The fact that she may not want them to claim their Nigerian citizenship is irrelevant. For now, they are dual citizens of Britain and Nigeria. It is up to them to renounce their Nigerian citizenship upon attaining full age, in accordance with Section 29 of the Constitution,” he said.
On the claim that it is “virtually impossible to get Nigerian citizenship,” Falana dismissed it as unfounded and inaccurate. He pointed to Sections 26 and 27 of the Constitution which clearly provide for acquisition of citizenship through naturalisation or registration for qualified foreigners.
He, however, acknowledged that there are areas of the law needing reform—particularly the gender disparity in the citizenship process.
“For instance, a woman married to a Nigerian man is eligible to register as a citizen. But the same right is not granted to a man married to a Nigerian woman. This reflects the patriarchal structure of the society and should be amended,” Falana said.
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