President-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Nigerian citizens are both permitted to hold dual citizenship, according to Babatunde Raji Fashola, Nigeria’s Minister of Works and Housing.
Mr Fashola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, stated this on Sunday Politics, a programme on Channels Television, amid claims that the president-elect has a Guinean passport.
While responding to the allegation, the former Lagos State governor said: “I know he (Tinubu) carries a Nigerian passport. I don’t know about dual citizenship. I know he resided abroad when he went into exile.
“I don’t know if they gave him American citizenship. What does that have to do with the results of the election? The last time I checked, I think the Nigerian constitution allows you to have dual citizenship. Doesn’t it?”
“What does his citizenship have to do with the results of the election?” he said.
Mr Tinubu is yet to speak on the controversy. The president-elect is reportedly a close friend of the deposed President of Guinea, Alpha Condé.
Oppositions argue that dual citizenship disqualifies him from the presidency under Section 137 of the Constitution.
On May 29, Tinubu will succeed President Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s fifth executive president since the country’s return to democracy in 1999.
He scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, the highest of all the candidates in the keenly contested February 25 presidential poll.