Kemi Badenoch Recalls Harsh Boarding School Experience in Nigeria, Compares It to Prison
London, UK — UK Conservative Party leader and Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden, Kemi Badenoch, has spoken candidly about her difficult upbringing in Nigeria, describing her time at a Federal Government Girls’ boarding school in Sagamu as comparable to being in prison. In a recent podcast interview recorded at Westminster, Badenoch reflected on her early life in Lagos, Nigeria, where she lived above her father’s medical clinic. She shared vivid memories of her childhood across three countries — Nigeria, the United States, and the United Kingdom — and how those experiences shaped her values, political views, and resilience. Now a rising star in British politics, Badenoch opened up about being sent to boarding school at the age of 11 — a formative period she characterized by hardship and discomfort. “It was very grim,” she said. “There was no running water. We fetched it with buckets. We had to cut the grass with machetes because there were no lawnmowers.” She revealed that about 300 students were housed in the school’s dormitory, with 20 to 30 girls crammed into each room. The living conditions, she said, were physically and emotionally demanding. She recalled swapping her meals for books and losing a significant amount of weight due to the poor diet and her aversion to certain foods, particularly fish. Reflecting on Family, Identity, and Nigeria’s Legacy Badenoch also offered intimate insights into her family history, including how her parents — both medical professionals — met at university. Her father, a doctor, and her mother, Professor Feyi Adegoke, a physiology lecturer, raised their family in Lagos during what she described as a relatively prosperous period for Nigeria. Born in Wimbledon in 1980, Badenoch explained that her birth in the UK was the result of fertility treatment her parents sought abroad, at a time when Nigeria’s oil wealth enabled affluent families to access private healthcare overseas. “Mr. Roberts, a surgeon based in Wimbledon, helped facilitate my mother’s pregnancy,” she said. “It turned out she had endometriosis, which at the time, doctors in Nigeria said only affected Europeans.” The interview also touched on Nigeria’s colonial legacy and how it influenced the social culture of her parents’ generation. She described seeing photos of her parents from the 1970s, surrounded by what she called “funky, jazzy” Western influences — from disco music to fashion trends — at a time when Nigeria was transitioning out of British colonial rule. Politics, Pain, and Personal Growth Throughout the interview, Badenoch credited her challenging upbringing with shaping her conservative worldview and approach to public service. “Those tough experiences made me who I am,” she said. “They gave me the tools to succeed in a country like the UK, where grit, ambition, and resilience are essential.” Badenoch’s comments have sparked mixed reactions, particularly among Nigerians on social media, where some defended the country’s public boarding school system, while others agreed with her depiction of its harsh realities. As she continues to rise within British politics, Badenoch’s dual identity as both British and Nigerian remains central to her narrative — one that fuses personal adversity with political ambition.
