John Dramani Mahama, a former president, has pledged to reconsider the constitutional clause that bars Ghanaians with dual citizenship from holding public office.
In the current state of affairs, he contends, such a law cannot be permitted to endure.
Mr. Mahama argued that the law damages the nation’s human resource and must be stopped immediately. But I want to reassure Ghana’s citizens and James Gyakye Quayson, our MP for Assin North, that when the NDC takes office, we will clarify the constitutional clause requiring them to renounce their foreign citizenship before running for office.
On Sunday, May 7, 2023 in Tamale, Mr. Mahama declared to NDC supporters that “a country’s human resource is its best resource. Three million of our citizens reside overseas, where they have developed a variety of talents and skills. Why do we need a law banning them when we already have one prohibiting dual citizenship? We’ll make it clear so they can come to Ghana and run for office and run for parliamentary seats. They don’t have to renounce their prior citizenship in order to hold public office, he said.
The NDC flagbearer candidate further claimed that the Supreme Court’s injunction against James Gyakye Quayson, the opposition National Democratic Congress’s representative in Assin North, was the work of the government.
Richard Takyi-Mensah, a teacher and inhabitant of Yamoransa in the Central Region, filed a lawsuit against Mr. Quayson for neglecting to renounce his citizenship when he selected nomination papers to run in the 2020 election for the Assin North Constituency.
Mr. Mahama, however, thinks that the government misled the supreme court in order to gain enough support for its initiatives in the 8th Parliament, which lacked a clear majority.
Such behaviors, in his opinion, are an insult to the nation’s developing democracy.
“We have witnessed the 4th Republic’s cardinal sin—the disenfranchisement of the SALL people. They have been without a member of parliament for an entire term. Put that aside; Assin North residents chose someone to serve as their representative in Parliament.
The Assin North MP has been placed under a restraining order thanks to the judiciary’s manipulation by this government. Therefore, although being the elected member, he is unable to carry out MP duties. That is a terrible injustice and a slight to the nation’s developing democracy, he said.
Adamu Dramani Sakande, a member of parliament for Bawku Central and a member of the New Patriotic Party, was given a two-year prison term in July 2012 for breaking the same dual citizenship statute.
He was convicted of making a false statement of office, lying under oath, and misleading a public official.
In December of the same year, Mr. John Mahama awarded the MP a presidential amnesty despite the fact that the MP later became ill while incarcerated.
He passed away from a cardiac problem in September of 2020.
