Nigeria Content Online

Last
week, the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, told a
Nigerian woman she cannot apply for her children without a letter from
the children’s father, and kindly offered to issue the documents as
soon as the paternal endorsement is received.

The shocked woman
asked the reason for her denial and the reason given by the immigration
officer at the consulate was that “in Nigeria, the children belong to
the man.” This incident is a pointer to the series of institutional
discriminations against women in the country, including the lack of
opportunities for men married to Nigerian women to take their wives’
nationality if they so desire, while foreign women married to Nigerian
men have no such problem.

Immigration
officials at the Lagos Passport Office, Ikoyi, confirmed that the
father’s consent is indeed a prerequisite while applying for the
passports of minors.

A senior official
at the office, who doesn’t want to be named because he did not have
clearance to speak on the issue, said this is done to prevent
situations where the mother of a child might want to take such a child
away from their father without the father’s knowledge, for instance,
while divorce is being ironed out.

“I have had cases here where fathers have denied being aware that their children have applied for passports,” he said.

However, Chibogu
Obinwa, the senior programme officer of BAOBAB, a women’s human rights
advocacy group, thinks the reason given by the Immigration Service
cannot hold water.

“It does not take
into consideration the circumstances which may have led the woman
wanting to take the children out of the marriage,” she said. “It could
be that the woman is in an abusive marriage, (to her and the children)”.

Another senior
official at the office of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at
Alagbon Close, Lagos, who also requested anonymity, corroborated what
the officer said at the Passport Office.

“It is purely for
security reasons,” he said. “It is intended to check crimes such as
human trafficking and child labour.” When asked if the mother’s consent
is required when a father is the one applying for their passport, the
immigration official said this may not be necessary since Nigeria is a
patrilineal society.

“You must
understand that Nigeria is a patrilineal society and the child belongs
to the father. In a country like Ghana that is a matrilineal society,
this may be possible.”

Jiti Ogunye, a
Lagos-based lawyer, expressed displeasure at the practice of government
officials in the application of laws, which he said reinforce the
patriachal posture of the Nigerian society. Mr Ogunye said such
practices are unconstitutional, as they negates the principle of
equality of sexes and the abhorrence of discrimination enshrined in the
country’s constitution.

“It is
unconstitutional, because there should be equality of treatment of both
gender by the law and in the application of all laws and regulations in
Nigeria, discrimination should be avoided. You can’t discriminate
anybody on the account of sex, circumstances of birth, state of origin
and religion. The constitutional provision in section 34 of the
constitution writes against discrimination.

However, Mr Ogunye
believes that while the immigration has the power to request for the
father’s consent to corroborate the mother’s claims if she shows up
first at the passport office, such treatment should be meted out to the
man also if he is the one that shows up first at the passport office.
This, he said, will justify the principle of equality as stated in the
constitution.

When asked if the
immigration is not deliberately negating the tenets of the constitution
on equality of sexes, the senior immigration official at the
immigration office at Alagbon retorted, “Our job is to implement
government policies. It is the job of a court of competent jurisdiction
to decide what is constitutional or not.”

A history of discrimination

The Nigerian
immigration law has a long history of discrimination against women in
its administrative policy on the issuance of international passports.
Prior to June 2009, when Priye Iyalla-Amadi, the wife of the famous
Nigerian writer, Elechi Amadi, got what is being regarded today as a
landmark judgement against the NIS, even adult women were required to
get their husband’s consent before they can apply for international
passports.

In the case
between Priye Iyalla-Amadi versus the NIS, a federal high court in Port
Harcourt declared as unconstitutional the policy of the NIS which
compelled a married Nigerian woman to produce a letter of consent from
her husband as a condition for issuance of international passport.

NEXT can confirm
that since the judgement was issued, the NIS has jettisoned the policy
that requires married women to get their husband’s consent before they
are issued passports.

“I have not been
asked to produce any such thing. Not at all,” said Mrs. Osinsanya, an
applicant at the Lagos passport office in Ikoyi.