Presidential aide, Dada Olusegun, on Monday condemned the United Kingdom (UK) Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, over her recent comments on Nigerian citizenship.
Badenoch, during an interview with CNN on Sunday, claimed that she cannot pass on her Nigerian citizenship to her children because of her gender. She argued that it is easier for Nigerians to acquire British citizenship than for foreigners to become Nigerians.
She said, “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.
“Yet loads of Nigerians come to the UK and stay for a relatively free period of time, acquire British citizenship. We need to stop being naive.”
Reacting to the claim in a statement issued on his X handle, Olusegun accused Badenoch of deliberately misrepresenting Nigeria’s laws and also accused the UK politician of a continuous attempt to malign Nigeria.
He wrote, “Aunty @KemiBadenoch, why do you continue to lie against your motherland? Why this continuous, dangerous, and desperate attempt to malign Nigeria?
“Chapter 3, Section 25(1)(c) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution states that if the Nigerian woman is a citizen by birth, her children, whether born in Nigeria or abroad, are Nigerian citizens by descent, automatically under Section 25 of the Constitution.
“This holds regardless of the father’s nationality. You do not need to apply for registration or naturalisation for her child to be a citizen.”
