Chapter III
Defines who is a Nigerian citizen and how citizenship is acquired, renounced or lost.
Section by section
Each section is shown twice over: what the section is and where its text lives, beside our plain-language explanation of it.
Official text
Section 25 · Chapter III
We do not reproduce the wording. Read section 25 in the official text of the Constitution as amended.
Plain language — our explanation
Defines who is a Nigerian citizen by birth, by reference to birth in Nigeria and to parentage or grandparentage belonging to a community indigenous to Nigeria.
Official text
Section 26 · Chapter III
We do not reproduce the wording. Read section 26 in the official text of the Constitution as amended.
Plain language — our explanation
Provides for citizenship by registration in the circumstances the section defines, on application to the President and subject to the conditions it states.
Official text
Section 27 · Chapter III
We do not reproduce the wording. Read section 27 in the official text of the Constitution as amended.
Plain language — our explanation
Provides for the grant of a certificate of naturalisation where an applicant satisfies the requirements the section sets out, including residence and good character.
Read the words
Nothing here reproduces the operative text. Every section is shown as two panes — what the section is, and our plain-language explanation of it — so the two can never be mistaken for each other. The Constitution has also been altered several times since 1999.
Where the precise wording matters — and in a constitutional argument it always does — read the official text of the Constitution as amended, and take advice on how the courts have interpreted the provision you are relying on.
Track the alterations and amendments