Nigeria severes diplomatic relations with Taiwan, closes Abuja office; grants Nigerian citizenship to 335 foreigners

The Federal Government on Wednesday says she will no longer recognise Taiwan as a country but rather pledged support for One China.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, stated this while answering questions from newsmen after a joint news conference with the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs in Abuja.
Onyeama said Nigeria had withdrawn all diplomatic relations with Taiwan as a country, adding that Taiwanese office in Abuja would be shut down and be relocated to Lagos.
According to him, Nigeria has communicated Taiwan and they are moving to Lagos as soon as possible.
“Taiwan will stop enjoying any privileges because it is not a country that is recognised under international law and under the position we have taken internationally, we recognise the people of China.
“Taiwan will not have any diplomatic representation in Nigeria and also they will be moving to Lagos to the extent that they function as a trade mission with a skeletal staff.
“Chinese Government does not oppose trading with Taiwan as such as long there is no formal contact with the Government that will suggest recognition of Taiwan as sovereign country,” he said.
According to him, China does not oppose relationship with Taiwan in the level of trade but not on government to government level.
The minister, however, said that Nigeria was not pressurised to take the decision, noting that the development was a bit of anormally on the side of Nigeria
He said that Nigeria recognised the People’s Republic of China as country because Nigeria was one the leading African nations that fought for China to reclaim its seat at the UN Security Council from Taiwan.
He said the step being taken was to right the wrong that one could not specifically say how it came.
“It was not very clear how it got into Nigeria system – an arrangement for the Taiwan for a trade mission.
“And in grating the right of the trade mission it did not accurately reflect the nature of relationship between Nigeria and Taiwan,” he said.
Onyeama stated that the country took the decision to remove any iota of doubt in the mind of the Chinese people.
He said on the issue of building trust, the international community had embraced one China and China is a member of the United Nations and we don’t want to leave any doubt on the issue.
The minister stressed that Nigeria would adhere to it completely and there is no ambiguity at all.
He said Nigeria as a nation would do everything to realise the One China Policy as well as any effort that would promote the peace and well being of the People’s Republic of China.
According to Onyeama, China is one of the countries that have been in full support of reforms in the UN that would see Africa having two seats at the UN Security Council, as such deserved to be supported in her unification drive of One China.
Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, granted Nigerian citizenship to 335 foreigners and rejected 165 applications.
Minister of Interior, Lt-Gen. Abudulrahman Dambazau (rtd), disclosed this at a joint State House Media briefing with Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, and the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr Femi Adesina, at the end of the FEC meeting.
The meeting, held in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Dambazau explained that the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Nigerian citizenship received 500 applications and recommended 335 of the applicants for approval.
He explained that 245 of the 335 successful applicants were born by naturalised Nigerians while the remaining 90 persons were foreigners married to Nigerians, popularly referred to as ‘Naija Wives’.
“The Ministry of Interior memo granting of citizenship to non Nigerians who applied. This is a procedure that takes a number of steps. The last time this was done was in 2013. We have some backlog of these applications.
“Over 500 applications that we considered, out of these, 335 were recommended for citizenship and this memo was brought to council to that effect. Citizenship is either by naturalization or by registration.
“There are 245 that applied for citizenship by naturalization and the requirements to be met are clearly stated in section 26 of the constitution.
“Then there is citizenship by registration and that is what is popularly known as Niger-wives which is for women in foreign countries who are married to Nigerian citizens. That is also clearly spelt out in section 27 of the constitution.
“So, the requirements are there and we considered them. Those who met the requirement, the advisory council recommended and sent to council for approval.
“So, today, FEC approved the recommendations of those who applied, 345 of them. 245 by naturalization and 90 by registration,’’ he said.
The minister said that all the successful applicants had complied with the requirements of sections 26 and 27 of the Nigerian constitution.
He said: “The moment any applicant doesn’t meet any of the requirement, check section 26 and 27 of the constitution, they are clearly stated there.
“If there are security issues, the security agencies will bring them out to say that a person belongs to a given group in-terms of security risk.
“But apart from that, we followed the rules and regulations, those constitutional requirements must be met.’’
The Federal Government in 2013 granted Nigerian citizenship to 174 foreigners while 27 persons were rejected.