Ghanaian Citizenship

My first reaction when I read on Ghanaweb that a constitution committee was having a hearing in NY was to drop everything and head for NY. When I gained my senses back, I realized how impractical it would be to do that. Besides the family commitment that I had for that weekend, I probably wouldn't have a chance to speak and if I did, my voice could be among many that the committee would forget before they got on the plane on the way back to Ghana. Thanks to the good people of Ghanaweb, I can share my "testimony".

I have a very strong aversion to taking someone's Ghanaian citizenship from him. I have even stronger aversion to taking someone's Ghanaian citizenship from him because he became a citizen of another country. It is true that if you become an American citizen, you are asked to renounce your country of citizenship at the time. But America turns right around and recognize dual citizenship, why? it is beneficial to America. Case in point, Mr. Zalmay Khalizad served as US ambassador to Iraq from 2005 until March of 2007 under George W. Bush. Not very long ago, Mr. Khalizad was said to be considering seeking permission from America to run for president in Afghanistan to help his people. Ghana needs her sons and daughters in the Diaspora more than America needs her "citizens". Why would we want to cut our noses to spite our faces?

I am not a lawyer and do not claim absolute knowledge so I allow for the possibility that I could be wrong, but I do not believe that loosing your Ghanaian citizenship, because you became a citizen of another country, has a precedence in the history of our laws. Other than our traditional "laws", which I do not believe addressed citizenship, laws in Ghana were handed down by our colonial masters i.e. Britain who during the British-American war, picked up "American" sailors and put them in British naval uniforms and sent them to war saying "once a Briton, always a Briton". Why would they turn around and hand down laws that will take someone's Ghanaian citizen from him/her?

When in the 1990s Mr. Rawlings and company starting toying around with our citizenships, I assumed Mr. Rawlings was doing that because he saw those in the Diaspora as a threat to his political aspirations. I was therefore very surprised when Mr. Kufour's government seemed to struggle with getting rid of this law.

Our winding up in the Diaspora was a result of the natural progression of our history. The British, our colonial masters, did not see the need to educate us other than to train the intelligent ones among us to become teachers who would train some of us to become clerical officers in their offices so that they wouldn't need to bring such "low" level need from Britain. Those who excelled were sent to universities in England to become senior officers in government offices. They did not see the need to build a university in Ghana until 1948. Until we became independent, we had only one university in Ghana.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah built us two more universities. Until recent years, all the many of us who desired higher education had to be admitted into one of the three universities or go abroad or kiss your desires goodbye. We compounded the problem by putting more value in foreign earned credentials thereby making foreign credentials more attractive to those who got into the three universities.

Returning home met up with the "wearing" of "Rawlings chain" and the period of time when many Ghanaians wanted out: "Anywhere but Ghana". Nigeria, Libya, Liberia, anywhere was more attractive than remaining in Ghana: an ideal time for those in the Diaspora to easily fall for other opportunities that came along. A friend told me he spent a whole night under a bridge in "sewer" water because he could not find transportation to go home and decided to walk because curfew time was coming up. He didn't get far before the soldiers were up the street. Many people ran along with him and spent the night under those conditions. When he left Ghana, he swore he would never step foot in Ghana again. I am happy to say my friend has since visited Ghana. He loves his country too much.

Our leaders have meted such conditions on us and turn around and cut us off without giving us a chance to step back and let our emotional attachment to our birthplace win us over. BBC reported that 78% of Africans in the Diaspora would return to Africa to live. Our love for our homeland was recently displayed when just about all the members of the black stars could not accept a repeat of our loss to Sudan in the Olympic qualifying games and went back to training camp which resulted in a 3-0 win for us against Congo. We all cheered. We all cheered when the Black Stars soared in South Africa even more so when they beat America. Why would we get cut off? Would it benefit Ghana?

Mexico values Mexicans living in the Diaspora so much that they have created a ministry for them. They say they are not trying to get them to go back. They are trying to nurture the love they and their off springs have for Mexico.

I will turn 58 this April. In about 7 years I will be looking at retirement. I have aspirations of returning to Ghana someday. If I do, I have 5 children who will at least occasionally come to visit which will mean tourist income for Ghana. I am sure there are many like me. What about retirement income that is not attractive to Ghana? Florida, Arizona, and many American states spend lots of money to attract retirees to their states. Ghana already has the emotional attachment. It will not take much to for people like me to line up to retire to Ghana. (I have ideas on how this can easily be done and may share it in future opinion article). I know one thing for sure. You are not going to attract many by taking their citizenship from them. Ghana government will be depriving Ghana of the benefits that retirees will bring to Ghana.

Finally let me say that many of us have made remittances to our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, our aunts, uncles and sometimes even to our friends. What gives the government of Ghana the authority to tell our fathers and mothers that their children are not Ghanaians anymore without giving them a chance to fight? Any such changes in our constitution should take a very long time and every opinion should be considered. Every opposition should be encouraged and heard. In the light of Tunisia and Egypt, such laws, like martial laws, should be approached extremely carefully. It could come back and run the politicians out of town.

Tony Pobee-Mensah