“Boarding School in Nigeria Was Like Being in Prison,” Says Kemi Badenoch in Candid Reflection on Childhood Struggles

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has opened up about her early life in Nigeria, sharing raw memories of hardship, family, and identity during a recent interview. Speaking from Westminster, Badenoch reflected on her formative years growing up above her father’s medical clinic in Lagos and the difficult time she spent at a federal boarding school in Sagamu — an experience she likened to being in prison.

Sent to the Federal Government Girls’ College in Sagamu at just 11 years old, Badenoch recalled grim conditions: no running water, students forced to fetch buckets of it themselves, and the manual labor of cutting grass with machetes due to a lack of lawnmowers. Dormitories were overcrowded, she said, with 300 girls crammed into buildings and up to 30 sharing a single room.

She spoke of a diet so poor that she lost a significant amount of weight, often trading her meals for books to avoid eating foods she disliked, particularly fish. Despite the challenges, Badenoch credited these early struggles with shaping her resilience and political worldview.

The interview also delved into her unique cross-continental upbringing. Born in Wimbledon in 1980 — the result of fertility treatments sought by her Nigerian parents — Badenoch was raised in Nigeria before spending later years in the United States and the UK. Her mother, Professor Feyi Adegoke, remains a university physiology lecturer at 75. Her father, a doctor who served Nigeria’s oil companies during the country’s economic boom, passed away three years ago.

Badenoch shared fond memories of her fourth birthday in 1984, marked by a Barbie cake in their Lagos apartment above the clinic. She described the joy of receiving a rare brown Barbie with a dress made of cake — a cherished gift that made a lasting impression.

Recounting her parents’ early life, Badenoch painted a picture of a vibrant 1970s Nigeria influenced by British education and pop culture. Her parents, who met in medical school, enjoyed a lifestyle shaped by oil wealth, travelling annually to London, shopping at Harrods, and embracing disco and Western music.

Badenoch also spoke candidly about her mother’s struggle with endometriosis — a condition dismissed at the time by doctors in Nigeria as something “only Europeans get.” It was a UK-based surgeon in Wimbledon, Mr. Roberts, who ultimately helped her mother conceive after years of uncertainty. “He facilitated it,” Badenoch said. “Without him, I wouldn’t have been born.”

Now the Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden and the UK’s opposition leader, Badenoch says her complex upbringing — split between continents, cultures, and economic realities — continues to influence her political philosophy and sense of self.