A total of about 286 foreigners who are originally citizens of America, Europe, and others were granted the right to be citizens of Nigeria. This is amidst some Nigerian citizens desperately crossing the desert into Europe in search of greener pasture and eventual grabbing of a green card. The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola stated this today Wednesday, 09th February 2022, while speaking during the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
The Minister said the 286 applicants granted were far less than half of the total foreigners who applied for Nigerian Citizenship.
Consequently, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed noted that Nigeria is not as bad as some mischief makers paint it in the eyes of the world considering the number of foreigners struggling to become Nigerians.
Aregbesola said the applicants include Americans, Europeans, South Koreans, and Australians.
Although the Minister did not make available the list of the successful new Nigerians for the press, he said about 208 of the approved ones were granted citizenship by naturalization, while the 78 others were granted citizenship by registration.
The Minister said, “The Ministry of Interior through me presented the Advisory Committee on Nigeria citizenship approval to the Council today. And it’s the first set. By the end of this first quarter or latest by the middle of the year, another set will be presented to the council.
“We received 600 applications from several people, foreign nationals who have been residing in Nigeria, but desirous of being Nigerians.
He explained that “These applicants are from virtually every part of the world. Americans, North and South Korean, Australians, Europeans, Arabs, Asians, all over the South Africans. Out of the 600 applicants, the advisory committee approved for the consideration of the council, 286.”
The Minister informed Nigerians that all the applicants were duly scrutinized by relevant security agencies concerned.
He revealed that the agencies of government who partook in the scrutiny of the said applicants were; the department of state security, the foreign affairs ministry, the Nigeria Immigration Service, and the state of domicile of those individuals.
Mr. Lai Mohammed described the gesture as groundbreaking, in his words, “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,”.
