UK must stop Nigerians from staying for relative period to acquire British citizenship – Badenoch

Leader of the United Kingdom Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, on Sunday lamented the influx of Nigerians to the country to obtain citizenship.

She said such an endeavour must be stopped.

Responding during an interview on Cable News Network (CNN) if she would support a Nigerian immigrant creating a “mini-Nigeria” in the UK, Mrs Badenoch said “no.”

Mrs Badenoch said, “That is not right. Nigerians would not tolerate that. That’s not something that many countries would accept. There are many people who come to our country, to the UK, who do things that would not be acceptable in their countries.”

The Tory leader further defended her position against Nigerian immigrants creating a “mini-Nigeria’’ in the UK, saying, “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.

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“Yet loads of Nigerians come to the UK and stay for a relatively free period of time, acquiring British citizenship. We need to stop being naive. That’s why under my leadership, we now have policies to make it a lot harder to get British citizenship.”

Mrs Badenoch, 45, of Nigerian birth, has vehemently opposed the British liberal immigration policy, advocating tougher policies for immigrants to secure UK citizenship.

Since she became the leader of the UK Conservative Party, Mrs Badenoch has maintained a critical stance against immigrants from Nigeria and other countries.

In January, Mrs Badenoch said that she was seeking harder immigration policies because she didn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria, which she described as a poor country where a terrible government destroys lives.

She had also said that the UK cannot be like a hotel that accepts everyone.