Overview of Citizenship in Nigeria

Citizenship is a juristic and political status in which an individual enjoys full, legally sanctioned membership in a state and owes full allegiance to it. Citizenship is a status that is legally granted to an individual by a state which enables such individual to enjoy the privileges and responsibilities that comes with that status.

OBTAINING NIGERIAN CITIZENSHIP

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended (“CFRN”) (“Constitution”) provides for three means of obtaining Nigerian Citizenship: Birth,[1] Registration[2] and Naturalization.[3] The Constitution provides a list of boxes applicants must tick to be eligible for Nigerian citizenship through any of these means, however, the procedure and documentations required are further provided in the Citizenship Requirements Handbook, issued by the Citizenship and Business Department of the Federal Ministry of Interior.

A major requirement as provided for in section 28 (2) of the Constitution is that only persons who are citizens of another country by birth are allowed to obtain Nigerian citizenship through registration or naturalization. Where such persons are not citizens of the other country by birth, issuance of the certificate of registration or naturalisation is conditional upon effective renunciation of the citizenship or nationality of that other country within a period of not more than five months from the date of such registration or grant of certificate of naturalisation.  

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