BILL TO GRANT CITIZENSHIP STATUS TO FOREIGN SPOUSES OF NIGERIANS MAKES PROGRESS

Nigerian international model, Oluchi and foreign her husband.

A bill to end the discrimination against women being sponsored by the lawmaker representing Ijebu North/Ijebu East/Ogun Waterside Federal Constituency, Honourable Adekoya Adesegun Abdul-Majid, on Tuesday passed the First Reading on the the floor of the National Assembly.

The bill, which seeks to alter the provision of Chapter III of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to provide for “citizenship by marriage” and for related matters, is aimed at meant granting women in Nigeria a share their citizens status with their spouses by virtue of their marriages.

Speaking on the significance of the bill, the sponsor, Hon. Adekoya noted that it was discriminatory against women because the Nigerian Constitution remained absolutely silent on matters as sensitive as not granting citizenship status to spouses by virtue of their marriages.

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Hear him: “It is discriminatory against women because our Constitution is absolutely silent on matters as sensitive as this. If a Nigerian man marries a foreigner, by virtue of the marriage, the woman (although not born in Nigeria and not of Nigerian parentage) can easily apply for Nigerian citizenship on account of that marriage. But in reverse, if a Nigerian woman is married to a male foreigner, the status of that Nigerian woman is presumed inadequate or insufficient to grant citizenship right to that male spouse, and our constitution is wickedly silent on this.

Rt. Hon. Adekoya Adesegun Abdel-Majid, Deputy Minority Whip House of Representatives.

“That is why I have taken it upon myself to remove this veiled and silent discriminatory oversight in our constitution. If it were possible to earn Nigerian citizenship through marriage it should be across board through both genders.”

When finally passed into law, the bill will alter the relevant sections of Chapter III of the Principal Act by inserting a new Section 28 viz:

28-(1) Subject to the provisions of Section 28 of this Constitution, any person who is qualified in accordance with the provisions of this section may apply to the President for the grant of a certificate of citizenship by marriage.

(2) no person shall be qualified to apply for the grant of certificate of citizenship by marriage unless he satisfies the President that he is a spouse to a Nigerian. (Whether male or female)

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