Report on Citizenship Law: Nigeria provided greater detail on procedures for registering or naturalising as a citizen and for loss and deprivation of citizenship.8 In 1961, one year after Nigeria’s independence, a referendum was held on the status of the Northern and Southern Cameroons. The Southern Cameroons voted to join the former French-mandated part of German Kamerun in the new state of Cameroon, while the Northern Cameroons voted to join Nigeria. Special provisions on the Nigerian citizenship of the residents of the Northern Cameroons were introduced into the 1960 constitution. By these provisions the status of persons connected with the territory transferred to Nigeria following the referendum was to be determined as if the territory had been part of Nigeria on the date of independence.9 2.3 Amendments to the citizenship regime in 1974 The 1960 independence constitution was replaced in 1963 to create a republic, but there were no significant changes to the provisions on citizenship. The citizenship provisions were also unaffected by the suspension of parts of the constitution following a military coup that overthrew the civilian government in 1966, leading directly to the Biafran civil war of 196770. In 1974, a decree adopted by the military government in office since the coup of 1966 replaced chapter II of the constitution and repealed the Citizenship Acts of 1960 and 1961. The new chapter repealed the provisions providing for automatic acquisition of citizenship based on birth in Nigeria, and effectively applied the transitional rules that had attributed citizenship automatically at independence to those born afterwards. A person born in Nigeria after independence would now automatically acquire citizenship at birth only if one parent or grandparent was also born there.10 Those born in the country with one parent who was a citizen by registration or naturalisation were also citizens; those born outside only if both parents were citizens of any category.11 There was no statement preserving the rights of those who were already citizens, and the law was drafted in such a way as to imply it had retroactive effect (although the usual assumption in law would be that existing citizens retained their status). 8 See generally, Arthur V.J. Nylander, The Nationality and Citizenship Laws of Nigeria (Lagos: University of Lagos, 1973); K. C. Okoli, ‘Nigerian Citizenship Law: A Current Perspective’, Journal of African Law 34, no. 01 (March 1990): 27–41. 9 The Nigeria Constitution First Amendment Act No.24 of 1961 introduced provisions repeated in section 10 of the 1963 Constitution, stating that: ‘(1) For the purpose of determining the status of persons connected with the part of Northern Nigeria which was not included in the Federation in the thirty-first day of May 1961, the foregoing provisions of this Chapter and subsection (3) of section 17 of this Constitution shall have effect as if: (a) for any reference to a particular date there were substituted a reference to the last day of the period of eight months beginning with the day next following the date, and (b) for any reference to the former Colony or Protectorate of Nigeria (other than the second reference in section 7) there were substituted a reference to the part aforesaid, and (c) that other reference included a reference to the part aforesaid. Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall prejudice the status of any person who is or may become a citizen of Nigeria apart from that subsection.’ Annotated text of the amended constitution reproduced in Nylander, The Nationality and Citizenship Laws of Nigeria. 10 There was an exclusion if neither parent was a citizen and any parent or grandparent had lost his citizenship by any means (i.e. including by acquiring another nationality). Constitution (Amendment) Decree, No.33 of 1974, Section 7(3) and (4). 11 Constitution (Amendment) Decree, No.33 of 1974, section 7(5). See E. I. Nwogugu, ‘Recent Changes in Nigerian Nationality and Citizenship Law’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly 25, no. 2 (1976): 423–39. 4 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/12- © 2020 Author(s)