Prominent human rights advocate and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo (SAN, OON), has lent her voice to the growing calls for constitutional reform regarding citizenship rights in Nigeria, particularly as they affect women.
Reacting to recent comments by British Minister Kemi Badenoch on discriminatory nationality laws, Prof. Ezeilo noted that, “Kemi Badenoch may be controversial, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.” According to her, the issue of citizenship in Nigeria, especially as enshrined in Chapter III of the 1999 Constitution, remains deeply problematic and inherently discriminatory against women.
She explained that Nigeria’s concept of “indigeneship” and its descent-based approach to citizenship undermine women’s rights and fuel identity crises that hamper national development. In particular, Section 26(2)(a) of the Constitution denies Nigerian women the right to confer citizenship by registration on their foreign husbands—a right Nigerian men enjoy without restriction.
“This provision exemplifies sex discrimination and violates the anti-discrimination guarantee under Section 42 of the Constitution,” she stated, adding that it also contravenes Nigeria’s obligations under ratified international human rights treaties.
Prof. Ezeilo lamented that efforts by the 9th National Assembly to amend these discriminatory provisions during the last Constitution Review exercise were unsuccessful. She expressed hope that the 10th National Assembly would correct this injustice and align Nigeria’s laws with principles of gender equality and non-discrimination.
For further legal analysis on the subject, she referred readers to her scholarly work, “The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Woman Question” published in the Nigerian Juridical Review (Vol. 8, 2000/2001, pp. 161–177).
