By John Ogunsemore
Professor of African History at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, United States, Prof. Moses Ochonu has described Leader of the British Conservative Party, Ms. Kemi Badenoch as “extreme and verbally reckless”.
Ochonu made the remark on Tuesday after Badenoch claimed she cannot pass on her Nigerian citizenship to her children because she is a woman.
In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, she said it remains “virtually impossible 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.”
In a swift reaction, the Federal Government of Nigeria through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed her claim as false.
Ochonu, who hails from Benue, said Badenoch’s “lie” could muddy and complicate legitimate conversations about legitimate causes.
He said, “Extreme and verbally reckless people like Kemi Badenoch always muddy and complicate legitimate conversations about legitimate causes.
“For instance, by lying that she cannot pass her Nigerian citizenship to her children because she’s a woman, she has done damage to and redirected outrage and debate from a real gendered injustice in Nigerian immigration law that needs to be corrected.
“By Nigerian law, foreign wives of Nigerian men can obtain Nigerian citizenship, but the foreign husbands of Nigerian women cannot obtain citizenship through their wives.”
He added, “Ms. Badenoch’s false statement has unleashed justified outrage, but the outrage is mostly wasted and unfortunately has collateral victims.
“Those who have been fighting to right an actual wrong for a long time have just had the energy and momentum sucked out of their struggle by her statement and the outrage that followed, an outrage which fails to acknowledge the aforementioned gendered injustice of Nigerian immigration policy.”
