The Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has taken a swipe at United Kingdom Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, over her recent claim that Nigerian law prevents her from passing citizenship to her children because she is a woman.
Dabiri-Erewa stated this on Friday, when she appeared as a
guest on ‘Hard Copy’, a programme on Channels Television, describing Badenoch’s
remarks as “misleading” and “entirely untrue.”
According to the NIDCOM boss, Badenoch’s claim was against
Section 25(1)(c) of the 1999 Constitution, which says a person born outside
Nigeria qualifies for citizenship if either parent is a Nigerian citizen.
“But that is not true. Don’t divulge false information. You
go on international media and spin a lie — that is a lie — that is not even
true. And I’m sure people have responded,” she said.
She further argued that denigrating one’s country publicly
must be challenged, and while Nigeria supports its diaspora, no one can be
forced to love their homeland.
“It’s not true, so why tell us something that is not true?
Do you know the number of Nigerians we have in the UK in the political space
who are doing very well? We don’t have to focus on one person, but when you
denigrate your country, we reply to you.
“It’s not about me, or the President, or you — it’s about
Nigeria. You can’t lie about your country, and then we keep quiet. There are
many who are doing very well politically. So ours is to continue to work with
every Nigerian in the diaspora, but you can’t force anybody,” Dabiri-Erewa
said.
Badenoch had made the controversial claim during an
interview, 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.
“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.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com