INTERIOR MINISTRY GETS APPROVAL TO ISSUE BROWN CARD FOR CITIZENSHIP

Nigeria's VP, Prof Yemi Osibanjo alongside Interior Affairs Minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Other Dignitaries

"It is under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari that the largest number of foreigners have been naturalized." Aregbesola.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has granted permission to Ministry of Interior to issue out brown card to foreigners craving to be Nigerian citizens.

The disclosure was made by the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Saturday in Dambazau hall of Nigeria Correctional Service headquarters, Abuja, while confering 385 foreign nationals with Nigeria Citizenship. 

He said President Muhammadu Buhari has approved for his ministry to issue a brown card as Permanent Permit to willing foreigners to be Nigerian citizens, especially foreign husbands who were impeded by certain clauses in the Constitution.

The Minister added that, "while the foreign wives of Nigeria men can automatically becomes citizens through registration, this same privilege is not available to foreign husbands of Nigeria women. 

Aregbesola decried that this 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 obtaines from their opposite sex.

He said in the alternative, his ministry had sought and gotten the approval of Federal Executive Council to execute new pathways to permanent residency for eligible nationals.

The Minister confirmed that it is under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari that the largest number of foreigners have been naturalized.

He said though the bane of the smooth pathway to Nigeria Citizenship is a constitutional requirements of continuous residency in Nigeria for 15 years, this is a huge disincentive considering what is obtainable in other clime.

Aregbesola then implored the relevent institution of states to reconsider this in the next effort as amendment to the constitution.

The Permanent Secretary Dr. Shuaib Belgore, while giving an overview of the 2023 conferement of Nigeria Citizenship to foreigners, said the 385 deserving foreign nationals were 317 whom have been granted citizenship by naturalization and 68 by registration.

He added that the economic contributions of these awardees to their local communities and Nigeria development was a key criteria in arriving at decision to grant Nigeria Citizenship to them out of numerous application received by the Ministry.

Dr. Belgore stated that the process of arriving to the decision of granting the Citizenship to the awardees went through collaboration with 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, attract more investors to contribute to the development of your new country to be prosperous.

In attendance were the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the Permanent Secretary, Niger Delta Affairs Ministry, representatives of Permanent Secretaries of Finance, Affairs, Foreign Affairs, representatives of the CGs of Nigeria Immigration Service and Nigeria Correctional Service