Kemi Badenoch Shares Experience At Federal Government Girls’ College In Sagamu, Speaks On Losing Weight Due To Poor Nutrition, Says She Often Traded Meals For Books

UK Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has described her time at a Federal Government Girls’ College in Sagamu, Nigeria, as a traumatic experience, likening it to “being in prison. ”

In a recent interview, Badenoch reflected on her childhood growing up above her father’s clinic in Lagos, before moving between Nigeria, the U.S., and the UK. She shared vivid memories of hardship, discipline, and survival at the Sagamu boarding school she attended at 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 prison,” 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 revealed she lost weight due to poor nutrition and often traded meals for books. Despite the challenges, she credits the experience with shaping her resilience and political values.

She also opened up about her family background, including being born in Wimbledon in 1980 after her parents struggled with infertility. Her father, a doctor, and her mother, Prof. Feyi Adegoke, then a young physiology lecturer, sought fertility treatment in the UK. Badenoch joked that a British doctor, Mr. Roberts, “helped make me” by treating her mother’s undiagnosed endometriosis, a condition some doctors at the time wrongly believed didn’t affect African women.

“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.”

Now a top British politician, she said her upbringing across three continents gave her a strong sense of identity and shaped her views on race, feminism, and post-colonial politics.

Source: Instablog

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