A Fellow in Public Law and Justice at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Prof Kwaku Asare, has stated that articles 8(2) and 94(2a) of Ghana’s 1992 constitution have been misinterpreted for years as far as the application of the law on dual citizenship is concerned.
The legal luminary insists that there is a fundamental difference between the two articles in relation to persons seeking to occupy public positions.
“They [Article 8(2) and 94(2a)] are different and they relate to different things. Unfortunately, they have not always been read correctly,” he explained in an interview on JoyNews’ AM Show.
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Article 8(2) of Ghana’s constitution states that “Without prejudice to Article 94(2)(a) of the Constitution, no citizen of Ghana shall qualify to be appointed as a holder of any office specified in this clause if he holds the citizenship of any other country in addition to his citizenship of Ghana.”
Meanwhile, Article 94(2a) on the other hand, states that ‘A person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he, (A) owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana.”
Prof Asare further explained that Article 8 was a provision from an old, unamended constitution that barred dual citizenship in the regime in which it was provided.
“Once you understand that old Article 82 did not even allow dual citizenship, then you would also understand that Article 94(2a) has nothing to do with dual citizenship or a status that was banned to start.”
He added that one of the arguments used to support the ban in the outdated constitution was the ambiguity around the allegiance of people with dual citizenship.
However, according to Prof Asare, a rebuttal case was presented to Parliament in 1996 to prove that the questions raised about dual citizens’ allegiance were unfounded.
This, he said, led to an amendment to the Act to allow dual citizenship.
Prof Asare also explained that under Article 8(2), there are some limitations imposed on dual citizens.
“There are some offices that dual citizens are not allowed to hold under Article 8(2), but those limitations are quite different from the burden imposed by Article 94(2a),” he explained to the host of the show.
Furthermore, he explained that Article 94(2a) dealt with allegiance, not dual citizenship.
According to Prof Asare, allegiance, as defined by the constitution, pertains to a citizen holding occupations that are incompatible.
He then cited an example of a Ghanaian doubling as a spy for a foreign country to buttress the explanation of allegiance he had given.
Subsequently, the CDD-Ghana fellow posited that there ought to be some amendments to some provisions of the law.
Prof Asare’s explanation comes on the back of a promise made by former president John Mahama in relation to the dual citizenship law.
Some politicians, such as Adamu Dramani Sakande, and James Gyakye Quayson have fallen victim to the Articles in question.
But Mr Mahama, while addressing some party faithful promised to review the constitutional provision that prevents Ghanaians with dual citizenship from holding political positions in the country.
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