Out of limbo
Blessed is the Nigerian Immigration Service, for they have renewed my visa. I had a couple of weeks of legal limbo which have now passed. Not a nice feeling to not be entitled to stay and not able to leave. Although I am legally married to a Nigerian woman, she (unlike Nigerian men) cannot confer residency or citizenship. Hopefully, there'll be a change in the constitution so that one day soon, non-Nigerian men married to Nigerian women don't have ongoing visa hassles and women are accorded the same power as citizens as men. I know a few blokes in exactly my situation - Naija husbands! One day, we'll all have green kpali, inshallah.
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9 comments:
Jeremy I'm not sure that you'll get your passport that way this lifetime! Nigerian men won't want to relinquish the fact that women lose their identity when they get married....they then become from wherever there husband is from.
I was dumbfounded a few weeks back when driving through the numerous checkpoints from Seme border one immigration man stopped us and asked why my kids had Nigerian passports when I am British! I think he was bored as he tried to claim you only get nationality from your father, irrelevant that their Mum is Nigerian and one of them was born here. We told him to shut up and go and read his constitution.
Your best chance is to stay for at least 10 years, keep working on your Yoruba and then you have a chance of getting a green passport through your contribution to the country.......at the risk of sounding cycnical you may need a big brown envelope as well.
Interesting, I've only ever heard of Nigerians moving mountains just to naturalise, so they can stay wherever they are, for as long as they want. It's nice to hear that foreigners appeciate living in Nigeria.
Strange about Nigerian women being unable to confer citizenship/ residency status for their partners.(I wonder if there is a good reason for that?...) I thought a citizen is a citizen, apparently not it seems. The struggle continues...
As long as you obey the law, and pay your taxes I assume you have nothing to worry about, may your stay be a long and happy one.
hehehehehe Jeremy, you no go kill me today oh!no be ya mates dey cross desert because of kpali? you, you dey there dey husstle for green! heheheheheheeh irony of life sha!!!!
@anonymous: abeg, no insult the mumu too much, na ignorance dey cause am.
didn't you know, Nigerian women are only half citizens. The whole system and society is geared towards men. Now, if anyone is in doubt that women are not 2nd class citizens in Nigeria, this will show them.
But I am surprise that the so-called gender activists in the country haven't matched about this. Unless they don't see it as a problem 'cause they are married to a naijaman.
It's something some of us have been complaining about for so long. It's so annoying. The proposed amendments to the Constitution included changing this nonsense about Nigerian women not being able to confer citizenship on foreign husbands but OBJ messed it up with Third Term. Hopefully, when we get round to changing the Constitution, all will be well.
The problem is not peculiar to Nigeria. Botswana had to fight for it (mother to child). Mauritius as well (wife to husband). It's just the nonsense that comes with many patriachal societies.
Anon 3 just hit the nail on the head. Yup....it's sad...so my green passport will yeild zero for me i decide to marry oyinbo? Okay, then we'll stick with the blue eagle!
Meanwhile that Heiffer Ita-Giwa is busy trying to Ban short Skirts.
Somebody should give her a knock on the head. Ode!!!
i second the ode comment.
we the women of that country have to rise. my sister experienced this nonsense when she got a ptdf scholarship. apparently in nigeria, the definition of a spouse is a man and his wife NOT a woman and her husband. they refused to recognise her husband as someone that should travel with her.
God naija. 'sexual discrimination act' anyone?
now that is one prayer i never thought i'd hear an englishman say :) (i'm still basking in the irony)
Goodluck with the whole process though.
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