SENATE PRESIDENT, LAWAN, HOUSE SPEAKER, GBAJABIAMILA, OTHER LAWMAKERS, MAY LOSE THEIR SEATS DUE TO DUAL CITIZENSHIP

Senate President, Ahmed Lawan (Right) and Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila. Photo credit: Thisday

In a landmark judgment on July 31st, 2019, the Ondo State Election Petitions Tribunal sacked Mr Ikengboju Gboluga, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) representing Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency of Ondo State for having dual citizenship and thereafter ordered that Mr Albert Akintoye of the All Progressives Congress (APC) be issued the Certificate of Return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This is according to reports by The Punch.

Justice Nuhu Adi who is the head of the tribunal, ruled that Gboluga was not eligible to contest the 2019 National Assembly election, having admitted in his INEC Form CF001 that he had “voluntarily acquired the citizenship of the United Kingdom” and had sworn allegiance to the country. The judgment was hinged on Section 66 of the 1999 Constitution which states in part that, “No person shall be qualified for election to the Senate or the House of Representatives if:
(a) 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, has made a declaration of allegiance to such a country.”

If upheld by higher courts, this judgment will set the precedent for nullification of the elections of some other currently serving federal lawmakers. The Punch reports that even the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, and the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, are at risk of having their elections nullified on this ground.

In his Form CF001, the Senate President admitted that he had never changed his nationality in the past but admitted that he had voluntarily acquired the citizenship of another country and had sworn allegiance to the same country. He however didn't mention the country. It is not immediately clear why INEC accepted the form from him without that piece of information, seeing that it plays a huge role in determining his eligibility to contest, and also borders on the fulfillment of constitutional provision.
In the case of the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, he noted in his INEC form that he had acquired the citizenship of the United States.
Many other current lawmakers are said to be citizens of either the United States or the United Kingdom, to which they have sworn oaths of allegiance.

In the oath of allegiance for all persons who voluntarily acquire US citizenship, a person must pledge 100 per cent loyalty to the country. The oath says, “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform non-combatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

In the case of the UK, the oath states, “I, (Insert full name), do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God.”

Reacting, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr Wahab Shittu, said, “As for the Ondo lawmaker, who was sacked on the basis of dual citizenship, the question is: Is the decision of the tribunal consistent with constitutional provisions? My answer is yes. The lawmaker cannot hold such office while he has allegiance to another country."

But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Ifedayo Adedipe, said the tribunal’s decision was wrong. He said, “The tribunal is clearly wrong; the tribunal got it all mixed up. You cannot say because a man naturalises, he ceases to be a Nigerian. That decision may be correct if the man in question renounces his Nigerian citizenship upon naturalising. I don’t want to go into details because the case is already on appeal.”

In the meantim, the APC candidate for the Okitipupa/Irele House of Representatives poll, Albert Akintoye, said INEC had given him the certificate of return. Akintoye, however, noted that Gboluga had approached the Court of Appeal in Akure to overule the tribunal. He stated there was nothing wrong with a Nigerian holding dual citizenship but argued that the moment a Nigerian swears an oath of allegiance to another country, he ought not to hold any public office. The lawmaker said Section 66 of the constitution had stated categorically that swearing an oath of allegiance to another country disqualifies one from holding a legislative office. 

United States Senator, Ted Cruz (R-TX) 

Andy Semotiuk, a US and Canadian immigration attorney wrote a piece about the topic of dual citizenship and government officials in the American business magazine, Forbes. In the piece, he states that, "Dual citizenship is attractive for many reasons, but there are times when it simply should not be tolerated. Serving as the elected official of a country at the national level is one of those times. No congressman or senator should have even the appearance of divided loyalties that dual citizenship brings, and one can look to the cases of Ted Cruz (a serving US senator who voluntarily gave up his Canadian citizenship) and Conrad Black (who also gave up his Canadian citizenship in order to receive his life peerage in the British House of Lords) as how things can and ought to play out. I fully agree with this point of view. You can read the full article here.

In the case at hand, however, we await a ruling from Nigeria's Judiciary. But, for me, I say that if Nigeria is to press home the importance of patriotism and selfless service, it should start by ensuring that elected leaders of the country have nowhere else to call "home" other than Nigeria, and therefore, no other symbol to show at international airports around the world than the green Nigerian passport.