CITIZENSHIP
A
citizen is an individual who has full political and legal rights in a state (by
birth, naturalization, marriage, registration, confirmation etc.)
The states just
like any other organization such as, for example a social club or a political
party has the right to make rules to governing its membership. In the case of
the state, membership is known as citizenship. Therefore, citizenship can be
defined as membership of a given state. Furthermore, citizenship is the term by
which we express the status of individuals who posses full political and legal
rights in a state.
WAYS OF ACQUIRING CITIZENSHIP
Citizenship
may be acquired through the following ways:
1. By Birth: the commonest
way in which individuals acquire citizenship of a state is by being born to
parents who are citizens of that state e.g. I am a Nigerian, because my parents
are citizens of Nigeria.
2. By Naturalization:
this is voluntary process by which an individual can opt out of membership of
one state and into membership of another state. Some countries however, do not
recognize the right of the individual to renounce his citizenship of that state
and so you may find occasional confused circumstances where a man may be the
citizen of one country according to the laws of that country and the citizen of
another under the laws of the other. In such a case, the citizen concerned is
said to possess dual citizenship. Nigeria for instance, does not allow dual
citizenship.
3. By Registration:
citizenship may be acquired by registering the birth of a child according to
the law of the country where he is born and where the parents are resident but
not national of the country. The child whose birth is so registered becomes a
citizen of that state by registration.
4. By Conferment:
(i.e. Honorary Award) this type of citizenship is conferred on an alien
(non-indigene) by the government of the awarding state, probably because the
recipient had distinguished himself or herself in a manner commendable to the
government of the state concerned. Brazil conferred honorary citizenship on
Nelson Mandela when he was in prison because of his strong courage and
determination to free his people from apartheid regime in South Africa.
5. By Marriage:
on becoming married, for example, a woman if an American woman is married to a
Nigerian man, she would become a Nigerian citizen by marriage.
6. By Conquest:
citizenship may be changed by conquest. For example, the French subjects who
lived in Quebec became British subjects in the mid-eighteenth century as a
result of the conquest of Canada by Britain. This means that if a state is
conquered by another state, the conquered state might be forced to take up the
citizenship of the conqueror or the conquering state. Citizenship acquired in
this way is said to be by conquest. Citizenship may be changed and loss by
renunciation, illegal acquisition of dual citizenship, Government withdrawal of
conferment and deep involvement in criminal and subversive acts.
DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN A CITIZEN AND A NON-CITIZEN
The following are differences between a citizen and
a non-citizen (i.e. an alien).
(i) A citizen has full political and legal
rights of his state but a non-citizen has not.
(ii) A citizen can enter his country without
travelling documents but a non-citizen is always expected to carry his
documents around such as visa and passport.
(iii) A citizen sees his country as his
permanent home but a foreigner sees the country as a temporary place of
residence.
(iv) A citizen cannot be deported or
repatriated for any offence, but a non-citizen can be deported or repatriated
at anytime the need arises.
(v) A citizen has certain duties and
obligations to fulfill in his country (e.g. joining the army when he is required
to do so and defending his country in time of war etc.) but a non-citizen has
not.
RIGHTS OF
CITIZENS
Rights
in this contest are certain basic conditions of happiness which an individual
must enjoy in order to live a satisfactory social life. The sum total of all
these rights is what we call civil liberty. Citizenship confers certain rights
on the individual, and imposes certain duties.
The rights of citizens are divided into
Social Right, Economic Rights, Political and Legal Rights.
Social Rights
The
social rights of a citizen are:
(i) Right to education
(ii) Right to association
(iii) Freedom of religion/conscience
(iv) Freedom from discrimination on the basis
of sex, tribe or religion
(v) Right to life
Economic Rights
Some of the
economic rights of a citizen include:
(1) Right to own property
(2) Right to pursue any business allowed by law
(3) Freedom from the compulsory acquisition of
one’s property except with adequate compensation
(4) Freedom to work and earn a salary
Political Rights
(i) Right to vote
(ii) Right to be voted for (i.e. to stand
election)
(iii) Freedom to be appointed and to hold any
political or public office
(iv) Right to form a political association or
a political party as may be directed under the law
Legal Rights
(i) Freedom of access to the law courts
(ii) Freedom from subjection to torture or
other inhuman or degrading treatment
(iii) Freedom from slavery or forced labour
(iv) Freedom from deprivation of personality
except in accordance with the law
(v) Respect for private and family life and
for private correspondence
(vi) Freedom of expression
(vii) Freedom of movement
The individuals
were given civil rights by the law which is protected in the constitution by
the Habeas Corpus Acts of 1979.
DUTIES AND
OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENS
Duties
are responsibilities of citizens which they have to carry out because they
enjoy certain rights and liberties provided and protected by the law of the
state. Unless the citizens perform these duties and obligations, the government
would breakdown, and their rights would therefore be valueless. Legal duties of
a citizen include;
(i) Obedience to laws
(ii) Payment of taxes
(iii) Defending the country
(iv) Service to the nation as a Juror/witness
in the court/military
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