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A D&D Fellow in Public Law and Justice at CDD-Ghana, Professor Stephen Kweku Asare held that opposition to Ghanaians with dual nationality being appointed to key government positions is based on mere speculation.
Speaking on The law of JoyNewsOn Sunday, Professor Asare said those who oppose the appointment of dual citizens to the heads of major state institutions are not basing their arguments on empirical realities.
He explained that these speculative arguments were the basis of the ban on dual nationality from occupying certain key positions in Ghana’s civil service, as prescribed by the 1992 constitution and its 1996 amendment.
He mentioned some of the speculative arguments like ‘they have divided loyalties’,’ they will be confused if there is a war between Ghana and Nigeria over who to fight for ‘,’ they can chop our money and s ‘run away’, ‘they want to eat their cake and have it’, ‘they will compete unfairly against politicians’, ‘they will take jobs from single citizens’, ‘they are not full Ghanaians’ and “You cannot serve two masters”. “
Professor Asare noted, however, that “when you question these things, you find that they are entirely speculative and not based on any empirical reality. As far as I know, no dual citizen has ever betrayed Ghana or participated in the overthrow of the Republic of Ghana.
He explained that if the country continues to exempt its dual citizens, who make up around 10% of Ghana’s population, from holding public office, the country might as well prevent single citizens from holding public office.
“In fact, every time the Republic has been overthrown, it has been done by mono Ghanaians. And even if mono Ghanaians have overthrown the Constitution or the Republic, it would be unfair to say then because one or two or three or ten mono Ghanaians have overthrown the Constitution, now let us beware of all mono Ghanaians and exclude them of holding these many offices that are listed, ”he explained.
According to him, the issue of dual nationality escaping the country after embezzling public funds is rather far-fetched and unlikely.
He said there are extradition laws to ensure runaway criminals are brought to justice.
“Then there is this idea that if someone has dual nationality, they can come and commit crimes in Ghana and then run away. It doesn’t work that way. In fact, yesterday I read an update from the Department of Justice in the United States where Ghana assisted them in extraditing a Ghanaian who had violated American law and so there are extradition laws that deal with such cases, ”he said.
Professor Asare called on all Ghanaians to support the proposed amendment to Ghana’s citizenship law and gave three reasons why dual citizenship should be allowed to hold public office:
1. Because “everyone on the bridge”. If you are Ghanaian, we want you to be involved.
2. We appeal to the patriotism of these double citizens when we try to sell diaspora bonds and so on. So it doesn’t really sound honest when it comes to a political office to say, well we doubt your patriotism. If you doubt their patriotism for political office, why do you trust them when it comes to selling Diaspora bonds or even encouraging them to send their remittances to you?
3. Any system which excludes 10% of the population from Parliament, from sitting on the Supreme Court, from all these other functions must appear to be fundamentally flawed. It is one thing to exclude them from one or two offices, but the magnitude of the exclusion is simply extraordinary.
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