Report on Citizenship Law: Nigeria already naturalised elsewhere requires effective renunciation of the other naturalised citizenship. 3.5 Renunciation of citizenship Section 29 of the constitution permits an adult to renounce Nigerian citizenship on application to the president. The provision was added in 1999, when loss of citizenship on acquisition of another was no longer automatic. However, the president may withhold consent if Nigeria is at war or if the renunciation is contrary to public policy. The section does not provide protection against statelessness by conditioning renunciation on the possession or acquisition of another nationality. 3.6 Deprivation of citizenship Section 30 of the constitution permits the president to deprive a naturalised citizen (but not a citizen by birth or registration) of his or her citizenship on various grounds, including conviction of a crime and sentencing to a prison term, or if ‘the person has shown himself by act or speech to be disloyal towards the Federal Republic of Nigeria’, or has associated with the enemy in various ways if Nigeria is at war. 4. Institutional Arrangements for Determination of Citizenship The most important government department responsible for determining citizenship is the Ministry of the Interior, especially the Nigeria Immigration Service, which falls under its authority, and its Citizenship and Business Department. The National Identity Management Commission and the Independent National Electoral Commission also play an important role in documenting persons as citizens for day-to-day purposes; while the National Population Commission is responsible for birth registration. However, an extra-legal system of identification through local governments is in most cases the foundational document to provide evidence of membership of a ‘community indigenous to Nigeria’ and therefore entitlement to citizenship. 4.1 The Nigeria Immigration Service The Nigeria Immigration Service is given the power to issue passports by the Immigration Act No.8 of 2015.22 The Act states in section 9 that passports ‘shall be issued only to bona fide Nigerians’, and section 12 makes it an offence for a non-citizen to hold a Nigerian passport. Section 116, on interpretation of the Act, states that ‘citizen of Nigeria has the meaning assigned thereto by [the constitution], unless the context otherwise permits’.23 22 Immigration Act, No.8 of 2015, Part II. The specific reference is to Sections 23 to 25 of the Amended Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2011, signed into Law by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the 10th day of January, 2011; renumbered but unaltered from sections 25 to 27 of the constitution as adopted in 1999. For a consolidated 23 10 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/12- © 2020 Author(s)