THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES MINDFUL of Article 5 of the Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States establishing the Authority of Heads of State and Government its composition and functions; RECALLING that Paragraph 1 of Article 27 of the Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States as amended stipulates that Community citizens are citizens of Member States that satisfy the conditions to be defined in a Protocol establishing a code of citizenship for the Community; CONSIDERING that Member States would still exercise the sovereign right in conferring their citizenship on any person; CONSIDERING that the requirements for the acquisition, the loss, the forfeiture, the withdrawal and the reintegration within the Community are not necessarily the same in all Member States; HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS: ARTICLE 1 On the Acquisition of Community Citizenship 1. A CITIZEN OF THE COMMUNITY IS: (a) Any person who is a national by descent of a Member State and who is not a national of any non-Member State of the Community. (b) Any person who is a national by birth of any of the Member States either of whose parents is a national by sub-paragraph (1) above provided that such a person on attaining the age of 21 decides to take up the nationality of the Member State. However, a person who had already attained the age of 21 before coming into force of this Protocol and who is of dual nationality shall renounce the nationality of that parent who is not a national by virtue of subparagraph (a) above. (c) (i) Any adopted child who at birth is not a citizen of the Community or whose nationality is unknown but who on attaining the age of 21 expressly takes up the nationality of his adoptive parent who is a Community citizen. (ii) An adopted person who has already attained maturity before the coming into force of this Protocol and who is of dual nationality shall expressly renounce the nationality of any State outside the Community. (iii) Any child adopted by a citizen of the Community provided that the