An ally of the president-elect and Minister of Works and Housing, Alhaji Babatunde Fashola, has said the constitution of Nigeria allows an individual to have a dual citizenship as an international passport showed that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu possesses a Guinea Conakry international passport surfaced online.
According to Fashola, the Nigerian constitution does not make a political office aspirant disentitled when such person is a dual citizen.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, equally did not say anything on the implications of perjury (lying on oath) as it became obvious that Tinubu in an affidavit he submitted to the INEC said he had no other citizenship, except being just a Nigerian.
Recall that reports emerged over the weekend that the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, owned a Guinea Conakry passport.
And only citizens of a country carry the international passport of countries they are citizens of.
The revelation sent internet users into a frenzy over why the pronounced president-elect of Africa’s largest economy lied to the nation’s electoral commission under oath, in his forms.
But reacting while speaking Sunday night during an interview with Channels TV, Fashola, who has been a longtime ally of Tinubu, said: “I know he carries a Nigerian passport; I don’t know about dual citizenship.
“I know he resided abroad when he went on exile. I don’t know if they gave him American citizenship. What has that got to do with the result of the election?
“The last time I checked. I think that Nigeria’s constitution allows you to have a dual citizenship.
“I will check. But I doubt that the Nigerian constitution makes you disentitled if you have dual citizenship, because the constitution allows you to have dual citizenship.”
However, the constitution of Nigeria is very clear on the issue of dual citizenship by public office holders and according to the passport, the former Lagos State Governor acquired the passport of Guinea Republic in 2015.
In particular, Section 137 (1) (a) of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria provides “A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if subject to the provisions of Section 28 of this Constitution, he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or, except in such cases as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, he has made a declaration of allegiance to such other country.”
