OATHS ACT

(1) The oaths to be taken as occasion shall demand shall be the oaths set out in the First Schedule to this Act.
[First Schedule]

A person appointed to an office set out in the second column of the Second Schedule to this Act shall take the oath specified in the first column of the said Schedule which shall be administered by the authority specified in the third column of the said Schedule.
[Second Schedule]

(1) Except in the case of the President, no person who has duly taken the Oath of Allegiance or the Judicial Oath in Nigeria as provided in this Act shall be required again to take that oath on appointment to any other office or on any other occasion.
(2) A person appointed to act in any office or capacity in the place of any officer or person, shall not be required to take any oath on the occasion of such appointment, unless the oath required to be taken in respect of such appointment is different from or in addition to any oath duly taken by him in respect of any other appointment, permanent or temporary.
(3) For the avoidance of doubt and notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, a person holding an office or position specified in the second column of the Second Schedule to this Act shall, on or as soon as may be convenient after the first day of October, nineteen hundred and sixty-three, take the oath prescribed for that office in the first column of the said Schedule.
[1967 No. 37.]

(1) Nothing in this Act shall render, or be deemed to render or be deemed to have rendered invalid any act done or which hereafter may be done by a public officer in the execution or intended execution of his official duties, by reason only of the omission by the public officer to take any oath or to make any affirmation which the officer should take or should have taken or should make or should have made:
Provided that any person who declines, neglects, or omits to take the required oath or make the required affirmation under this Act shall -
(a) if he has already entered on his office, be deemed to have vacated that office from the date of refusal; and
(b) if he has not already entered on his office, be disqualified from entering on the same.
(2) No irregularity in the form in which an oath or affirmation is administered or taken shall -
(a) invalidate the performance of official duties; or
(b) invalidate proceedings in any court; or
(c) render inadmissible evidence in or in respect of which an irregularity took place in any proceedings.
(3) The failure to take an oath or make an affirmation, and any irregularity as to the form of oath or affirmation shall in no case be construed to affect the liability of a witness to state the truth.

(1) Whenever an oath is required to be taken under the provisions of this or any other Act, or in order to comply with the requirements of any law in force for the time being in Nigeria, or other country, the following provisions shall apply -
The person taking the oath may do so in the form and manner following, that is to say -
(a) he shall -
(i) if a Muslim, place both hands on a copy of the Koran,
(ii) if a Christian, hold in his right hand a copy of the Holy Bible or of the New Testament,
(iii) if a Jew, hold in his uplifted hand a copy of the Old Testament,
and shall say or repeat after the person administering the oath the words prescribed by law or by the practice of the court, as the case may be;
(b) in any other manner which is lawful according to any law, customary or otherwise, in force in Nigeria.
(2) Where any person taking an oath is physically incapable of taking the oath as provided in the foregoing subsection, he may touch or hold such copy otherwise, or if necessary, such copy may be held before him by the person administering the oath.

Every commissioner for oaths or notary public before whom any oath or affidavit is taken or made under this Act shall state truly in the jurat or attestation at which place and on what date the oath or affidavit is taken or made.

Where an oath has been duly administered and taken the fact that the person to whom the same was administered had, at the time of taking the oath, no religious belief, shall not for any purpose affect the validity of the oath.

Any person who objects to the taking of an oath and desires to make an affirmation in lieu thereof, may do so without being questioned as to the grounds of such objection or desire, or otherwise, and in any such case the form of the required oath shall be varied by the substitution for the words or swearing, the words, "I solemnly, sincerely, and truthfully affirm that", and such other consequential variations of form as may be necessary shall thereupon be made:
Provided that in any case where the Oath of Allegiance is to be taken, for the words "truthfully affirm" in this section there shall be substituted the word "truly declare and affirm, and the words" So help me God," shall be omitted.

Anything to the contrary in this Act notwithstanding, if it appears to a court or officer before whom an oath other than a promissory oath is to be taken or affirmation other than a promissory affirmation is to be made, that the person about to take the oath or make the affirmation ought not, by reason of immature age or for any other sufficient cause, to be allowed to take the oath or make the affirmation as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the court or officer, if the court or officer shall in its or his free discretion so think fit, to allow such person, in lieu of taking the oath or making the affirmation, to give evidence or make a declaration without oath or affirmation and in any such case the court or officer shall enter in the minutes of the proceedings or on the instrument or document concerned, as the case may be, a note of the fact of the evidence or declaration having been given or made without oath or affirmation, and of the reasons therefor:
Provided that, if any person declining or objecting to take an oath is, in the opinion of the court or officer as the case may be, competent, to make an affirmation, such person shall, on the court or officer so directing him, thereupon make an affirmation as provided by section 8 of this Act.

(1) It shall be lawful for the Chief Justice of Nigeria, a Justice of the Supreme Court, the President and Justices of the Court of Appeal and any judge of the Federal High Court, a notary public, and any commissioner for oaths, to administer any lawful oath or to take any lawful affirmation or affidavit which may be required to be taken or made for the purpose of complying with the requirements of any law for the time being in force throughout Nigeria or elsewhere, except where such procedure is expressly or by necessary implication manifestly excluded by the terms of such law as aforesaid and the presumption shall be against any such exclusion.
(2) It shall be lawful for any of the persons mentioned in subsection (1) of this section to take any declaration made in the form prescribed in the First Schedule to this Act, in cases where an oath is or has been abolished by any enactment.
[First Schedule]

(1) Any oath or affidavit required for any court or for the purposes of registration of an instrument may be taken or made in any place out of Nigeria before any person having authority to administer an oath in that place.
(2) The provisions of subsection (1) of this section shall apply to any declaration, or affirmation in lieu of oath or affidavit so taken or made.
(3) In the case of a person having such authority by the law of a country other than Nigeria, judicial and official notice shall be taken of his seal or signature affixed, impressed or subscribed to or on any such oath, affidavit, declaration or affirmation.

(1) Every Nigerian official of the rank of Secretary or above in a Nigerian Embassy or legation may in any country where he exercises his functions, administer any oath and take any affidavit and also do any notarial act which a notary public can do within Nigeria.
(2) Any oath, affidavit and notarial act administered, sworn or done by or, before any such person shall be as effectual as if duly administered, sworn or done by or before any lawful authority in any part of Nigeria.
(3) Any document purporting to have affixed, impressed or subscribed thereon or thereto the seal or signature of any person authorised by this section to administer an oath in testimony of any oath, affidavit or act being administered, taken or done by or before him shall be admitted in evidence without proof of the seal or signature of that person, or of the official character of that person.

It shall be lawful for any commissioner for oaths, notary public or any other person authorised by this Act to administer an oath, to take and receive the declaration of any person voluntarily making the same before him in the form set out in the First Schedule to this Act.
[First Schedule]

(1) The President may in writing require the holder of any office to take or affirm the Judicial Oath or the Oath of Allegiance.
(2) The President may by order published in the Federal Gazette amend the First and Second Schedules to this Act, and may by the same or any other order provide that this Act shall apply in relation to persons who are not citizens of Nigeria subject to such modifications as may be prescribed.
[Second Schedule]

(1) Where a person not a citizen of Nigeria is, while in Nigeria, for any reason required to take the Oath of Allegiance of Nigeria or other oath relevant to his employment, the Oath of Allegiance shall, upon the termination of his residence or stay in Nigeria cease to be binding upon him but any other oath taken shall continue to have effect according to its tenor.
(2) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to the prejudice of the allegiance which any such person may owe irrespective of the taking of the Oath of Allegiance for the time being to Nigeria.

(1) This Act may be cited as the Oaths Act, and shall in so far as other provisions to the contrary are not made by any State acting within the scope of its legislative authority, apply throughout the Federation.