Dual citizens deserve equal rights and opportunities – JB Danquah

Joseph Boakye Danquah, a top contender in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary race at Subin Constituency, has waded into the ragging debate over restrictions that Ghanaian dual citizens face in the country.

Speaking exclusively to asempanews.com in Accra, the USA based tax consultant argued that the national Constitution is discriminatory and ambiguous, as it does not offer equal rights and opportunities to all Ghanaians.

According to him, there are several people who by virtue of being born in abroad to Ghanaian parents become dual citizens.

He added that the perception that dual citizens are mainly Ghanaians who have opted to live in the diaspora, is completely wrong and absurd.

“What crime has these people committed? Is it their fault that they were born to Ghanaian parents in abroad? We simply cannot go on like this,” JB Danquah retorted.

He continued: “The Constitution allows Ghanaians to naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to his or her Ghanaian citizenship, but the same Constitution bars the individuals from occupying certain positions.

“That’s pure discrimination and unheard off. More than half of our talent base have been thrown away just because they are dual citizens. Why are we doing this to ourselves? It is wrong, immoral and it must stop,” he exclaimed.

He, particularly, could not comprehend why these same dual citizens are permitted to represent the country in sporting competitions, but are disqualified from holding certain public offices.

Article 94 (2) of the Constitution states: “A person shall not be qualified to be a Member of Parliament if he owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana.”

Article 8(2) of the Constitution and Section 16(2) of the Citizenship Act also exclude dual citizens from holding various specified and unspecified public offices and give Parliament and the minister the power to add more office-holding exclusions.

In the Citizenship Act (no. 591), 2000 restrictions have been imposed on dual citizens from holding public offices.

In the opinion of the NPP politician, claims that dual citizens could be national security threats are far-fetched and myopic, as there are no empirical evidence to back such assertions.

“There are classical examples in the USA to elaborate that. Arnold Schwarzenegger is originally from Austria but look at what he did for America as a filmmaker. Barrack Obama’s father is from Kenya but his son went through the ranks to become the first black president in the US.

“Look at Madeleine Albright for instance. She became the first female United States Secretary of State in U.S. history, having immigrated to the United States in 1948 from Czechoslovakia with her family. There numerous examples,” Mr Boakye Danquah argued forcefully.

While urging parliament to take interest in amending the law to address the bottlenecks in the Constitution, Mr Boakye Danquah, stressed that lots of Ghanaian citizens, who are providing essential services in other countries, are unable to do so due to the discriminatory nature of the provisions in the country.

In 2012, a Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Adamu Dramani Sakande was handed a two year jail term for becoming a Member of Parliament despite being a dual citizen.