A Fellow in Public Law and Justice at the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana), Professor Kweku Asare, has observed that no dual citizen has ever betrayed the nation or been involved in overthrowing the Republic.
“When issues are interrogated you find that they are entirely speculative and are not grounded in any empirical reality a dual citizen has either betrayed the nation or overthrown the Republic,” he reiterated.
Prof. Asare explained that “if we continue to exempt dual citizens, who make up about 10 per cent of our population, from holding public office, the country might as well prevent mono citizens from taking up public office roles”.
According to him, any time the Republic was overthrown, it was done by mono citizens, even though mono citizens have overthrown the constitution, it will be unfair to say because some mono citizens have overthrown the constitution, we should be suspicious of all mono citizens and should exclude them from holding public office.
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Prof. Asare pointed out that the issue of dual citizen escaping the country after embezzling public funds was rather far-fetched and unlikely because there were extradition laws to ensure run-away criminals were brought back to face the law and insisted that dual citizen could not come and commit crimes in the country and run away.
He said it did not work that way since there were extradition laws that dealt with such cases and called on Ghanaians to support proposed amendment of Ghana’s Citizenship Act and opposition to Ghanaians with dual citizenship being appointed to key governmental positions was based on mere speculations.
Prof. Asare indicated that those opposing appointment of dual citizens to head key state institutions do not base their arguments on empirical realities because such speculative arguments formed basis for which dual citizens were prohibited from occupying certain key positions in public service as prescribed in the 1992 Constitution and its subsequent 1996 amendment.
He mentioned some of the speculative arguments as, they had divided loyalties, confused if there is war between Ghana and that country as to who to fight for, embezzle funds and run away’, eat their cake and have it, compete unfairly against politicians, take jobs away from mono citizens, not full Ghanaians and cannot serve two masters.