British Conservative Party leader and Minister for Business and Trade, Kemi Badenoch, has recounted her difficult teenage years at a Nigerian federal government girls’ secondary school, describing the experience as “like being in prison.”
Speaking during a podcast interview with Gyles Brandreth on Friday, Badenoch gave a vivid account of her time at the Federal Government Girls College in Shagamu, Ogun State. She recalled enduring extreme conditions at the boarding school, which she attended after being sent back to Nigeria as part of her early education.
“It was called a Federal Government Girls’ School, in a place called Shagamu, and that was like being in prison,” Badenoch said, reflecting on her first time living away from home. “I had to fetch buckets of water, cut grass with a machete, and clean toilets with no running water.”
She described the living conditions as austere, saying students were packed into dormitories — about 150 girls housed in six rooms, with up to 30 per room. “We had to look after the school ourselves. The machete was for cutting grass. Because, well, who else was going to do it?” she added.
Badenoch also shed light on the structure of the federal school system in Nigeria, which, she said, was designed under a socialist framework aimed at national integration. Students were sent to schools across the country based on academic merit, often far from their families.
“This was more socialism,” she explained. “They didn’t want one school to dominate in performance, so they spread people around. I was lucky not to be sent thousands of miles away, but I was still very far from home. It was like Lord of the Flies. The students were in control.”
Despite the adversity, Badenoch said the experience gave her a unique perspective that has helped shape her worldview and leadership style.
“I always carry that understanding with me that you never know where you’re going to end up,” she reflected.
Her comments have sparked conversation both in the UK and Nigeria about the conditions in some African public boarding schools.
