Amend Dual Citizenship Act - Chief Justice

The Chief Justice, Justice George K. Acquah has called for an amendment to the Ghana’s Dual Citizenship Act to protect the rights of Ghanaian citizens. This is because the current Act presupposes that the applicant should already possess Ghanaian citizenship.

Justice Wiredu says this is unfortunate and certainly not what was intended because the rationale underlying the quest for dual citizenship in Ghana was to enable Ghanaians who lost their citizenship, to regain or reacquire that citizenship in addition to the foreign citizenship they had acquired.

Currently the utilisation of the dual citizenship law depends largely on the citizenship laws of the country, to which the Ghanaian seeks the additional citizenship. Where the citizenship laws of that country require a renunciation of existing citizenship, the dual citizenship act becomes ineffective.

The situation is of great concern to the Chief Justice who says the Dual Citizenship Act should ensure that the birthright citizenship of a Ghanaian is not lost on that person's acquisition of another country's citizenship.

Mr Justice Acquah was speaking on the topic, "Who is a Ghanaian? The Citizenship Perspective” at the 44th Founder's Week celebrations of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Science in Accra on the general theme, "National Integration".

He has therefore suggested the adoption of Nigeria’s Dual Citizenship Act, which ensures that the birth right citizenship of either a Nigerian or non-Nigerian is not lost on the acquisition of a foreign or Nigerian citizenship.

It also seeks to preserve the citizenship by birth of both Nigerians and non-Nigerians who seek the citizenship of other countries and that of Nigeria.

Mr Justice Acquah said, "Such a highly commendable provision will prevent that status of statelessness in Nigerian citizenship law," stressing "it is a provision worthy of emulation by all nations including Ghana in particular".