JJ Rawlings and JA Kuffour: Are they Ghanaians

When Rawlings was president there were some elements in the society who claimed he is not a Ghanaian. They claimed he is either from Scotland or may be from Togo. At present there are some other group of people who claimed JA Kuffour is not a Ghanaian. They claimed Kuffour is from Congo or Sudan. In the remote past it was the great Kwame Nkrumah who was from Liberia, IK Acheampong from Sierra Leone and Dr Hilla Limann from Burkina Faso.

The habit of branding our presidents and ministers as aliens to score political points makes mockery of our constitution as well as our legal system. Perpetrators of such falsehood should know such acts breed animosity in our body politics. Its time they stop peddling such falsehoods and allow some decency to prevail.

Who is a Ghanaian?

In the 1990s a very prominent Ghanaian took JJ Rawlings to court challenging his nationality. He claimed Rawlings is not from Ghana and therefore cannot be president of Ghana. During the hearing of the case the trial judge the late Justice Elsifie Bondzie made some incredible revelations which stunned many.

According to him prior to 1957 there was no Ghana. The country was then known as the Gold Coast. When the country gained independence in 1957 the name was changed to Ghana by the great Osagyefo. He explained that as part of independent celebrations anyone residing in the then Gold Coast which became Ghana was granted an automatic Ghanaian citizenship. He ruled that since Rawlings was born before 1957 by law he is therefore a Ghanaian.

What puzzled me was how such an educated guy and his team of crack lawyers could be ignorant of such a law in our statute books? It’s amazing how some scholars cum politicians kept referring to a section of the populace as foreigners. Most often residents of Zongo communities in Accra, Kumasi, T’di etc bare the brunt of being pigeonholed as foreigners by the politicians. With their level of education these politicians should know these Zongo dwellers are Ghanaians by birth though their progenies may came from Nigeria, Burkina Faso etc. If the politicians are too busy to read the Constitution; the Supreme law of the land let me help them out so they stop spreading falsehoods about our heroes and leaders. According to Chapter 003 of 1992 constitution a Ghanaian citizenship could be acquired through any of the following 1. Birth 2. Marriage 3. Naturalisation

Currently party elements of both NPP and NDC kept making false claims about the nationalities of each other. For instance some NPP elements claimed minister of states like Alex Segbefia and Koku Anyidoho etc are from Togo. John Mahama, Ayariga etc are from Burkina Faso. Their NDC counterparts make ‘return to senders’ by claiming Nana Akuffo Addo is from Mali, Alan Kyeremantin from Congo, Kwadwo Mpianim from Sudan and Jake Obetsebi Lamptey from Nigeria. What are we up to?

Bizarrely some of these guys who label Zongo dwellers as foreigners are proud holders of USA, UK, and Schegen Passports. If you happen to be on a flight with them to Ghana you will see them joining the queue for ‘Foreign Nationals’ at Kotoka Airport. They are quickly whisked through immigration by Officers. The rest of travellers holding Ghanaian passports will be in endless queues that take forever to clear. The irony is as soon they get home you hear them saying ‘Segbefia, Anyidoho, Akuffo Addo, Alan Kyeremantin ‘omu nye Ghanafoo’ (meaning they are not Ghanaians)

The same group of guys will quickly send their pregnant wives to the USA to give birth so the child becomes US citizen. They know children born in the US become US citizens but refuse to accept that the same law applies to children born in Ghana. They will marry either UK or US citizens to become one but don’t want to hear that Zongo residents who marry Ghanaians have right to citizenship.

The feeding of falsehood to the public domain by confused politicians is not good for our children, the future leaders. These children imbibed such distorted facts and take them at face value. To them these cheap propagandas are facts because they are flogged by role models in the society. Its time we realise we are bringing up our children in environment full of deceit and dishonesty.

I am saying this from experience. When I was a child my dad told me glowing stories about Nkrumah. He adored Nkrumah and disliked the hoodlums who overthrew him. When I started school I picked up an entirely different story from the school environment. Stories told by children as young as 6 years. They told tales about how horrid Nkrumah was and some even said when he was overthrown human skull was found in his deep freezer.

They said he fed his political opponents to lions in the Accra Zoo which was his personal zoo before it was changed to a public zoo. Among all the concocted tales about Nkrumah one that hit me to the core was Nkrumah was not a Ghanaian. He came from Liberia. It took me decades to come to terms with the fact that he is a native of Nkroful in the Western Region.

This antiquated method of playing the alien card to win votes which started in the 1950s has outlived its usefulness. Its time present crop of politicians become more innovative and creates new ideas of wining votes. They should desist from using this divisive tool used by some of our founding fathers half a century ago. Civic organisations like NCCE and CDD should educate the public on citizenship laws so the politicians will not use that as a weapon anymore.

Francis Kwaku Egu

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