The Constitution of Ghana (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which aimed to let dual citizens to hold a certain list of sensitive public positions, was warned against by the Council of State.
If the Bill had been approved, dual citizens would have been able to hold positions that are currently only available to people without dual allegiance under Article 8(2) of the 1992 Constitution, such as Member of Parliament, Ambassador or High Commissioner, Chief of Defence Staff or any military Service Chief, Inspector General of Police, Secretary to the Cabinet, and Director of the Immigration Service.
First Deputy Speaker Bernard Ahiafor referred the Bill to the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee for a thorough examination when it was first read in Parliament in February 2026.
The idea was defended by lead co-sponsor Davis Ansah Opoku, the New Patriotic Party MP for Mpraeso, who claimed that it was more about acknowledging contemporary circumstances than it was about challenging people’s allegiance.
At a Diaspora Town Hall meeting in London on May 31, President John Mahama publicly supported the reforms, stating that government legislation was pending in Parliament to permit Ghanaians living abroad with other passports to engage in parliamentary and ministerial politics.
He claimed that he refers to the measures in private as the “Gyakye Quayson bill,” alluding to the many legal disputes that Assin North MP James Gyakye Quayson has had regarding his citizenship and parliamentary seat. Mahama described Ghanaians living abroad as the diaspora’s economic weight, citing remittances of almost $7.8 billion in the past year.
