159 Nigerians renounced their citizenship, according to the Federal Government, in 2022.
This was revealed by Dr. Shuaib Belgore, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on January 26 at the 64th State House Ministerial Briefing, which was held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja and hosted by the Presidential Communications Team.
Between 2006 and 2021, 150 Nigerians renounced their nationality, he said.
The tremendous exodus of Nigerians out of the country in pursuit of brighter pastures, a phenomenon now known as “Japa syndrome,” according to Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola, who also spoke at the ministerial briefing, is what is behind the high demand for passports.
He said that the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) issued 1,899,683 passport booklets in 2022, the most in more than seven years. He also disclosed that in the previous two years, at least 70 foreign nationals had been deported due to a variety of violations.
“In the last two years, the Minister issued a total of 70 deportation orders for the deportation of different nationals from Nigeria due to one infraction or the other.
“The majority of those deported were from the Democratic Republic of Korea, Egypt, Sri Lanka and a host of others,” he said.
Aregbesola went on to say that nationwide between 2015 and 2022, fire incidences resulted in the loss of properties valued at N3.19 trillion.
This, he claimed, includes the N46.1 billion in fire losses for 2022.
According to a breakdown of data provided by the federal fire service, fire occurrences resulted in the loss of properties valued at N15.7 billion, N1.65 billion, and N5.18 billion in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Fires cost Nigerians N26.71 billion, N16.46 billion, and N32.12 billion in 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. Meanwhile, losses in 2021 and 2022 totaled N3.05 billion and N46 billion, respectively.
However, according to Aregbesola, numerous fire incidences around the country resulted in the recovery of items worth N25.32 trillion.
The breakdown was N57.50 billion (2015), N16.6 billion (2016), N426.5 billion (2017), N2.84 trillion (2018), N1.18 trillion (2019), N1.35 trillion (2020), N18.99 trillion (2021), and N448.4 billion (2022). During the same time period, 2,244 persons were saved from fires, while 366 people died.
