The Nigerian Government has granted 286 foreign nationals Nigerian Citizenship out of the 600 applications it received.
Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, who disclosed this, said the approval was given by the Federal Executive Council at this week’s meeting of the council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He told State House Correspondents that 208 of those approved were granted citizenship by Naturalization, while 78 others were granted citizenship by registration.
Aregbesola said the persons approved by Cabinet cut across various countries of the world.
“The Ministry of Interior through me presented the Advisory Committee on Nigeria citizenship approval to the Council today. And is the first set by the end of this first quarter or latest by the middle of the year another set will be presented to council. But what is it about? We received 600 applications from several people, foreign nationals who have been residing in Nigeria, but desirous of being Nigerians.
“These applicants are from virtually every part of the world. Americans, North and South Korean, Australians, Europeans, Arabs, Asians, all over of the South Africans. Out of the 600 applicants, the Advisory committee approved for the consideration of the council 280. Before the presentation, let me say, some agents of government scrutinized these applicants. The Agencies are the department of State security, the foreign affairs ministry, the Nigeria immigration service, and the state of domicile of those individuals,” he said.
Recall in 2017, the Nigerian government granted 335 foreign nationals Citizenship.
Commenting on Wednesday’s approval, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, described the decision as groundbreaking, especially at a time when some Nigerians say the country is unfit to live in.
He said: “It’s a groundbreaking memo as it will tell you because just as some people think Nigeria is not a fit and proper place to live, we have thousands of people who are applying daily all over the world from virtually every continent to be citizens of Nigeria; I think that is very instructive.”
