Several Nigerians in the diaspora have been tearing their passports due to their displeasure with INEC’s handling of the 2023 general elections.
But it is not your passport that makes you a Nigerian citizen. Millions of Nigerians do not have passports but they are citizens nonetheless. The passport only identifies you as a Nigerian outside the shores of Nigeria.
In January, the permanent secretary of the interior ministry Shuaib Belgore said that between 2006 and 2021, 150 Nigerians renounced their citizenship while 159 renounced in 2022 alone.
Interior minister Rauf Aregbesola said Nigeria issued about 1.9 million passports (1,899,683) to citizens in 2022, the highest in seven years.
While many countries including the US allow for dual citizenship, others like Austria do not, thus necessitating applicants to renounce the citizenship of their previous country.
Renouncing your citizenship is a very sensitive matter so ensure you think it through.
According to the Immigration Act 2015, Section 10(1)(b), a person has committed an offence in respect of passports when he or she “unlawfully alters, tampers with or mutilates any passport or any pages thereof.”
The way to stop being a Nigerian citizen is to follow the due process of citizenship renunciation.
STEP 1:
Visit the appropriate authority that is the ministry of interior, Nigerian Immigration Service or the Nigerian embassy in the country where the person resides.
STEP 2:
Fill out the application form with complete information which must be signed and certified before a magistrate or notary public or justice of peace or commissioner of oath.
STEP 3:
Submit the application form(s) with the following documents:
– Copy of the foreign passport
– Copy of the foreign citizenship certificate or copy of confirmation that the applicant will become a citizen of a foreign country
– Birth certificate
– Citizenship certificate (if any)
– National Identity card (if any)
– Passport-sized photograph of the applicant
– Nigerian passport or other travelling documents
– Marriage document (for female applicants below age 18)
– Proof of acquisition of citizenship in another country
Please note that the Nigerian president reserves the power to withhold the registration of any declaration and renunciation of citizenship during war in which Nigeria is physically involved and where it is in his opinion that such declaration will be contrary to public policy. See S. 29 (3) (a) (b) of the 1999 constitution.
