TheCable

Shuaib Belgore, permanent secretary of the ministry of interior, says 159 Nigerians renounced their citizenship in 2022.

The permanent secretary said the figure is higher than the 15 years preceding 2022.

Belgore spoke on Thursday at the state house ministerial briefing in Abuja.

He said 150 Nigerians renounced their citizenship between 2006 and 2021.

Belgore said: “We spoke earlier about those who are conferred with Nigeria citizenship by Mr President. In November last year, we had a total number of 286 new Nigerians, out of which 208 were by naturalisation while 78 were by registration, meaning spouses of Nigerian citizens who now have become Nigerians.

“However, going further, the advisory committee on Nigerian citizenship will sit on the 7th of February to consider another 350 applications for naturalisation, after which the successful applications will be sent to Mr President in council for approval.

“Now down to those Nigerians who renounce their citizenship, so far we have registered a total of 309. Between 2006 and 2021, 150 Nigerians renounced their citizenship. In 2022 alone, around 159 Nigerians renounced their citizenship.”

Also speaking at the briefing, Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, said at least 70 foreign nationals were deported from the country for various infractions.

“In the last two years, the ministry issued a total of 70 deportation orders for the deportation of different nationals from Nigeria due to one infraction or the other,” he said.

“The majority of those deported were from the Democratic Republic of Korea, Egypt, Sri Lanka and a host of others.”

‘JAPA’ TREND FUELLING DEMAND FOR PASSPORTS

The minister said Nigeria recorded the highest demand for passports in 2022 because of the trend of citizens leaving the country for greener pastures.

He said the immigration service issued the highest number of passport booklets in over seven years — totalling 1,899,683.

In August 2022, Muhammadu Sanusi II, former Emir of Kano, had advised youths to stop running abroad in a bid to escape the challenges facing the country.

The former Emir encouraged young people to start building the country with their talents and hold public officers accountable.