- In an interview, she recalled her childhood in Lagos and the hardships, strict discipline, and survival struggles she faced at the boarding school from age 11.
- She also shared that her parents’ struggle with infertility led to her birth in the UK after her mother received treatment for endometriosis.
UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has described her time at a Federal Government Girls’ College in Sagamu, Nigeria, as tr+umatic, comparing it to “being in prison.”
In an interview, she recalled her childhood in Lagos and the hardships, strict discipline, and survival struggles she faced at the boarding school from age 11.
“I went to a secondary school, it was called a federal government’s girl school in a place called Shagamu. And that was like being in pris%n,” Badenoch stated.
“There was no running water ,we fetched it with buckets. We had to cut grass with machetes because there were no lawnmowers. It was grim,” she recalled. The dormitories were overcrowded, housing 20–30 girls per room out of the 300 students enrolled.
Badenoch said poor nutrition at the school forced her to trade meals for books but credited the experience for her resilience.
She also shared that her parents’ struggle with infertility led to her birth in the UK after her mother received treatment for endometriosis.
“My mum is still a lecturer at 75. My dad sadly passed away three years ago,” she said.
Badenoch shared fond memories of her fourth birthday in 1984, celebrated in Lagos with a Barbie cake. “I had a brown Barbie with a dress that was the cake. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”
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