From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The federal government has granted permission to the Ministry of Interior to issue brown cards to foreigners who desire to be Nigerian citizens.
Speaking while conferring 385 foreign nationals with Nigerian citizenship in Abuja, at the weekend, Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, said that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved that a brawn card be issued as a permanent permit to willing foreigners who apply to be Nigerian citizens, especially foreign husbands who were impeded by certain clauses in the constitution.
“While the foreign wives of Nigerian men can automatically become citizens through registration, this same privilege is not available to foreign husbands of Nigerian women” he observed.
The minister said that the discrimination has robbed the country of the gains it could have gotten from this category of foreigners if there is a pathway for them through registration as obtained from their opposite sex.
He said in the alternative, his ministry had sought and gotten the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to execute new pathways to permanent residency for eligible nationals.
Aregbesola confirmed that it is under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari that the largest number of foreigners have been naturalised.
He said though the bane of the smooth pathway to Nigerian citizenship is a constitutional requirement, it’s a huge disincentive considering what is obtainable in other climes.
To this effect, Aregbesola implored the relevant institutions to reconsider this in the next effort for a constitutional amendment.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Dr Shuaib Belgore, while giving an overview of the 2023 conferment of Nigerian citizenship to foreigners, said that out of the 385 foreign nationals, 317 were granted citizenship by naturalisation and 68 by registration.
He added that the economic contributions of these awardees to their local communities and Nigerian development were key criteria in arriving at the decision to grant Nigerian citizenship to them out of numerous applications received by the ministry.
Belgore stated that the process of arriving at the decision of granting citizenship to the awardees went through collaboration with the security and the communities of their residence for thorough authentication.
“Based on the scrutiny of the process to the approval of your citizenship, you have to be responsible, loyal and law-abiding citizens of Nigeria. You should attract more investors to contribute to the development of your new country to be prosperous,” he admonished.