It’s the time of the year when members of the NDC from the diaspora rush to Ghana, pick up forms and try to become Members of Parliament. I strongly encourage that move but want them to be mindful of Article 92 2a of Ghana’s constitution.
Article 92 2a of Ghana’s constitution says among other things that a person shall not be qualified to be a Member of Parliament if he/she owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana.
The NDC will never forget the 2020 elections, especially with some of our comrades from the diaspora who contested and won parliamentary elections. As I write, we lost one of our seats in parliament due to Article 92 2a.
Hon Dorcas Affo-Toffey, an MP for Jomoro in the Western Region, had to fight a long battle in court, until recently when she won the court case to retain her seat. Our comrade, Hon. James Gyakye Quayson, a former MP for Assin North, unfortunately, had to give up his seat because he was bitten by Article 92 2a.
I am bringing this issue up at this time because NDC is not going to play on the battlefield in 2024. As I followed the case of Hon. Gyakye Quayson, I realized that he thought he had a fine case to be a Member of Parliament until the courts of Ghana thought otherwise. In other words, it is not what you think, but what the laws of Ghana say.
As we in the diaspora rush to pick up forms to contest elections in Ghana, we must seek fair legal advice from various lawyers. Please don’t rely on the advice of just one lawyer and put NDC into any long litigation after the elections. The fight in 2024 is not going to be an easy one and we don’t want to leave any stones unturned.
The workload on NDC in 2025 and beyond, including jailing most of the current government officials to bring Ghana back to normalcy would be so huge that, we would not want any distractions because of someone’s carelessness and failure to follow due process.
Let me say here that credit from this article should also go to the Chapter Organizer of NDC USA, Comrade Ebenezer Ekumah, alias Asona-ba, of the Chicago branch for calling me to write about this issue, so those diasporans who are excited to become Members of Parliament would be mindful of Article 92 2a of Ghana’s constitution. I have already talked to five lawyers: two in the US and three in Ghana.
Mahama Reba
Dr. Lawrence is the Founder of the Diaspora Progressive Movement in USA.
