The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has lamented the cumbersome process foreigners are subjected to while applying to be citizens of the country.
It was gathered that chapter three of the Nigerian 1999 constitution stated that an individual may become a citizen of Nigeria by birth, registration, or naturalization.
The constitution further stated that a person applying for the certificate of naturalization must have resided in Nigeria for, at least, the fifteen years preceding the date of his application or preceding his application, he has lived in Nigeria for twelve months, and a period amounting in aggregate to at least fifteen years within the twenty years immediately preceding those twelve months.
However, the Minister bemoaned the fifteen-year residency constitutional requirement as too long, describing it as a disincentive for foreigners who would have loved to become Nigerians and add to national development.
Aregbesola said this explained why after many years the country had been able to grant 286 foreigners citizenship
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