An American man married to a Nigerian woman sparked national debate after exposing Nigeria’s gender-biased citizenship law—where foreign wives of Nigerian men gain instant eligibility, while foreign husbands of Nigerian women must wait 15 years—urging reform through a viral video and drawing lawmaker support for constitutional amendment.
𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎: 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐧 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐋𝐚𝐰 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐖𝐢𝐟𝐞
An American man married to a Nigerian woman has gone viral after publicly lamenting his inability… pic.twitter.com/64t5gLzDU3
— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) April 5, 2025
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.
“Why shouldn’t I be able to travel freely in and out without stress? I don’t think that is right. I don’t think that should be so.
“So, I’m telling my husband that maybe we just read the wrong information because we need explanation. That cannot be right,” the wife added.
“I don’t know who has Tinubu’s DMs, his email, his social media. We should see about this. It’s not right”, he jokingly added.
The couple’s concerns have ignited a widespread debate regarding the fairness of Nigeria’s citizenship laws.
In response to the viral video on X, a federal lawmaker representing Egbeda/Ona Ara Constituency, Hon. Akin Alabi, criticised Section 26 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, which allows a foreign woman married to a Nigerian man to apply for citizenship, but not vice versa, labeling it as discriminatory. He called for a revision that would grant both men and women the equal right to grant citizenship to their foreign spouses.
He wrote: “Section 26 of the 1999 Constitution lists the conditions under which individuals can become Nigerian citizens. One of them is “any woman who is or has been married to a citizen of Nigeria”.
“My opinion: This should be amended to “any person…”. My constitutional amendment bill on this just scaled second reason.
“I believe that if we do not want to do citizenship by marriage, that’s fine, but if we are doing it, it shouldn’t be just one way. Men and women should be able to pass citizenship to their spouses. This smacks of patriarchy and discrimination,” Alabi said, adding that his constitutional amendment bill on the matter has just passed its second reading.
“I attempted this in the 9th assembly but came short. I hope to see it to the end this time.
“I must, however, mention that constitutional amendments are hard to achieve. Not impossible, but the extra step of 24 Houses of Assembly needing to agree makes it extremely difficult. We will continue to try.”