An American man married to a Nigerian woman has gone viral after publicly lamenting his inability to obtain Nigerian citizenship, highlighting what he calls a glaring gender-based inequality in the country’s constitution. In the video which started trending on X on Saturday, the man, visibly baffled, appealed to Nigerians for answers.
The couple, who are currently planning a long-term move to Nigeria, said they were looking into residency and citizenship requirements when they stumbled upon the disparity in the 1999 Constitution: while a Nigerian man can quickly sponsor his foreign wife for citizenship, a Nigerian woman must endure a 15-year wait before her foreign husband is eligible to apply for citizenship.
He said, “I beg, Naija people, make una tell me, how do I become Nigerian?” he asked at the beginning of the video. “I was doing some online research, and I learnt that according to the Nigerian constitution, a Nigerian man when he marries a foreigner, can allow her to apply for citizenship immediately. But a Nigerian woman, when she marries a foreigner, that man has to live in Nigeria for 15 years before he’s eligible to apply for citizenship.” His Nigerian wife also expressed disbelief.
She said, “Yeah, it’s kind of like really funny because we were reading about the whole thing. It says that if I, as a Nigerian woman, get married to a foreigner, the man cannot become a Nigerian unless he has lived in Nigeria for 15 years. But if a Nigerian man marries a foreigner, the woman can apply to become a Nigerian immediately. Make it make sense”. The man, comparing the situation to U.S. citizenship laws, said, “That’s alright in my country, you can apply immediately.
