According to the Federal Government, 159 Nigerians gave up their citizenship in 2022 alone.
This was revealed by Dr. Shuaib Belgore, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on January 26 at the 64th State House Ministerial Briefing, which was held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja and hosted by the Presidential Communications Team.
Between 2006 and 2021, 150 Nigerians surrendered their nationality, he said.
The tremendous exodus of Nigerians out of the country in pursuit of brighter pastures, a phenomenon now known as “Japa syndrome,” according to Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola, who also spoke at the ministerial briefing, is what is behind the high demand for passports.
He said that the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) issued 1,899,683 passport booklets in 2022, the most in more than seven years. He also disclosed that in the previous two years, at least 70 foreign nationals had been deported due to a variety of violations.
“In the last two years, the Minister issued a total of 70 deportation orders for the deportation of different nationals from Nigeria due to one infraction or the other.
The majority of those deported were from the Democratic Republic of Korea, Egypt, Sri Lanka and a host of others.” he said
