The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has expressed doubt over constitutionally provided restrictions on a presidential candidate with dual citizenship from running for elections.
Fashola shared his perspective on the matter following the circulation of images of what appeared to be a Guinean passport with the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, as its holder over the weekend.
The allegations of Tinubu purportedly holding citizenship of both Nigeria and Guinea generated an uproar among netizens, particularly those opposed to his emergence as the President-elect.
The minister who made a live appearance on Channels Television said he knows Tinubu owns a Nigeria passport, but he is not sure if he was given American citizenship when he went into exile.
“I know he carries a Nigerian passport; I don’t know about dual citizenship.” “I know he resided abroad when he went into exile, he said.
I don’t know if they gave him American citizenship there. What does that have to do with the results of the election? The last time I checked, I think Nigeria’s constitution allows you to have dual citizenship?”
When asked if the provisions cited apply to presidential candidates, the Senior Advocate Nigeria (SAN) said he would need to revisit the constitution for specifics on the provision.
“I’ll go and check. It’s ‘place of birth’ o… if you were born to Nigerian parents. I’ll check that, but I doubt that the Nigerian constitution makes you disentitled if you have dual citizenship because the constitution allows you to have dual citizenship,” he added.
The Nigerian Constitution states in Section 137(1)(a) that a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if “subject to the provisions of section 28 of this Constitution, he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or, except in such cases as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, he has made a declaration of allegiance to such other country.”
Section 28(1) of the constitution provides that “a person shall forfeit forthwith his Nigerian citizenship if, not being a citizen of Nigeria by birth, he acquires or retains the citizenship or nationality of a country, other than Nigeria, of which he is not a citizen by birth”.
The section also adds, “Any registration of a person as a citizen of Nigeria or the grant of a certificate of naturalization to a person who is a citizen of a country other than Nigeria at the time of such registration or grant shall, if he is not a citizen by birth of that other country, be 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.”
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