Citizenship – JSS1 Civic Education Lesson Note (Second Term)

A citizen is someone who enjoys full political rights in a state and in return performs certain duties to the state. A citizen therefore is a legal member of a state.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. define a citizen;
2. list the types of citizenship;
3. explain citizenship by birth, registration, naturalisation, honorary award and descent, with examples;
4. state the conditions an alien must fulfil to become a citizen by naturalisation.

What are the types of citizenship?

1. Citizenship by birth

This is the situation where the parents of a person are natives of the country, or where a person is born to citizens of a nation. For example, a child born to Nigerian parents automatically becomes a Nigerian by birth.

2. Citizenship by registration or marriage

This occurs when a Nigerian man marries a British woman, for example. The woman can become a citizen of Nigeria through registration of the marriage.

3. Citizenship by naturalisation

This happens when an alien or foreigner becomes a citizen of another country after fulfilling the conditions for citizenship laid down by the constitution of that country. It is a process by which an individual voluntarily changes his or her citizenship of a state to that of another state in which he or she lives.

Some of the conditions that an alien must fulfil are as follows:

• The applicant must be an adult acceptable in the community.
• The applicant must be of good character.
• The applicant must swear an oath of allegiance.
• The applicant must be able to contribute, and must have been contributing, to community and national development and growth.
• The applicant must have lived in a particular community in that country for a specific time.

4. Honorary citizenship

From time to time, the government of a country honours a distinguished or eminent person with citizenship of that country. For example, iconic figures in Nigeria like Sir Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo have been honoured with citizenship of other countries of the world.

5. Citizenship by blood ties or descent

Citizenship of a country is also acquired through blood ties. This means that the fact that a child was born in a particular community in the country does not necessarily confer citizenship on that person.

Evaluation

1. Define a citizen.
2. List the five types of citizenship.
3. Explain citizenship by birth, with an example.
4. State three conditions an alien must fulfil to become a citizen by naturalisation.

Assignment

Explain citizenship by registration or marriage and honorary citizenship, giving one example of each.