The Illegitimate Presidency of Rawlings Justifies Dr. Amoako's Parliamentary Election – Part 5

At the time of this writing (8/3/08), Mr. Kofi Boateng, Chairman of the USA branch of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), had issued an Electronic-Mail bulletin informing members that Dr. Samuel K. Amoako, winner of the NPP parliamentary primary in the Akyem-Abuakwa-North constituency, had renounced his hard-earned American citizenship, thereby qualifying the retired college-skills professor of the LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York to contest Election 2008 as the NPP candidate. And here, more significantly, it bears highlighting the fact that Dr. Amoako had both served as President of the Akyem Association, of New York, as well as Secretary-General of the National Council of Ghanaian Associations (NCOGA), in the New York Metropolitan Area, prior to his laudable decision to contest the Akyem-Abuakwa-North parliamentary primary on the ticket of the ruling New Patriotic Party.

We must also, here, highlight the fact that Dr. Amoako had legally acquired his Dual Citizenship with the coming into force of the Ghanaian Citizenship Act of 2002 (Act 91) of December 1, 2002, an act that was duly passed by Ghana's National Assembly and promptly ratified by the President of Ghana. And here, also, must be highlighted the fact that the question and legitimacy of Dual Citizenship vis-à-vis Ghanaian residents of the Diaspora, was first raised and staunchly endorsed by the now-opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the main Ghanaian parliamentary opposition party, when the latter held the reins of constitutional governance, between 1992 and 2000.

In the main, the acquisition of Dual Citizenship by Ghanaians resident in the Diaspora has come to be generally and widely accepted, by both Ghanaians resident at home and abroad, as a matter of socioeconomic and political necessity. And in the past, both Presidents Rawlings and Kufuor have gratefully and gracefully acknowledged the fact of Ghanaians in the Diaspora having immensely contributed in the form of monetary, material and human-resource assistance to the development of their country of birth, over and above the contribution of any major donor nation. Consequently, it appears that in the case of Ghana, the recognition and acceptance of the legitimacy of the acquisition of Dual Citizenship by Ghanaian-born residents abroad, was both predicated upon the fact of the inalienable and indigenous Ghanaian identity of the Diaspora Ghanaians as well as the remarkable economic assistance unreservedly provided by these Ghanaians abroad to their proverbial Motherland.

If the preceding observations have any modicum of accuracy, then it appears that the entire process of Dual Citizenship and the very Act 2002 (Act 91) that brought the acceptance of the acquisition of Dual Citizenship by Ghanaians resident abroad into force, was a criminal and fraudulent act perpetrated by the Government of Ghana, for which parliamentarians of both major parties of the country stand equally culpable. And the preceding, of course, is in instantial regard to the apparently circumstantial pressuring of Dr. Amoako to renounce his legitimately acquired American citizenship.

It is also significant to observe that the United States of America does not only accept Dual Citizenship vis-à-vis its foreign-born and naturalized citizens, the United States does not also require that any foreign-born resident who naturalizes as an American citizen hand over his or her foreign passport. And to be certain, among the most prominent naturalized American citizens who have played a globally momentous role in the Government of the United States is the Czech-born former Secretary-of-State Mrs. Madeleine Albright. And long before Mrs. Albright became United States Secretary-of-State, or Foreign Minister, and the “official face” of Washington to the outside world, as it were, the German-born Dr. Henry Kissinger had also served as U.S. Secretary-of-State. And so why does it appear to be so intellectually challenging for some Ghanaian politicians resident at home to accept the legitimacy of a Ghanaian-born Dual-Citizenship holder contesting for public office? In our illustrative American case, both Drs. Kissinger and Albright had been appointed to their powerful cabinet portfolios by Presidents Richard M. Nixon and William J. Clinton, respectively. And both had also been envisaged as cabinet appointees of remarkable genius even when, as was the case with Dr. Kissinger, the appointee was also deemed to be ideologically unsavory.

And if it means anything at all, then, perhaps, it bears pointing out the fact that the portfolio of U. S. Secretary-of-State is the 5th most powerful in America's 232-year-old constitutional democracy. It is also interesting to recall the fact that during her quite exciting confirmation hearings in the United States Senate, the recently-deceased Senator Jesse Helms even had occasion to sanguinely remark on the plausibility of Dr. Albright eventually succeeding to the presidency of the United States. Needless to say, Senator Helms had made his quite stunning suggestion without full awareness or knowledge of the fact of Dr. Albright and her parents having immigrated to the United States from the erstwhile postwar Czechoslovakia while the future United States Secretary-of-State was 9 years old. Apprised of the latter fact, Senator Helms is reported to have gnashed his teeth wistfully (and I bet those were really some teeth to gnash) and further remarked that, indeed, the American Constitution may have to be revised in order to promptly facilitate the maximum appropriation of the genius talents of the naturalized likes of Mrs. Albright. In recent years, similar observations have been registered with regard to the Austrian-born Governor of California and world-renowned action-flick megastar Mr. Arnold Schwartzenegger. One lawmaker even launched a quite spirited media campaign in the same direction.

Through the Amoako saga, one thing has become clear, Ghana's Dual-Citizenship Act of 2002 was almost incontrovertibly a devious and desperate instrument fabricated by the Government – and inclusive here, of course, is the constitutionally deposed government of the P/NDC – to dupe and materially exploit Ghanaian-born residents and citizens of the Diaspora. If so, then any and all who have been circumstantially pressured to renounce their Dual Citizenship have a legitimate right to demand full refund, with interest and penalties, of their Dual-Citizenship and passport registration and acquisition fees. The entire Dual-Citizenship exercise must also be immediately mothballed, until such time that Ghanaian politicians reach an emotionally and intellectually mature level of the requisite appreciation for the functional and political significance of Dual Citizenship.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is the author of 17 books, including “Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana” (iUniverse.com, 2005) and “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Atumpan Publications/lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: [email protected].