Chairperson of the US branch of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Obaa Yaa Frimpong, has commended the party’s delegates for shooting down a constitution amendment proposal that sought to prevent dual citizens from holding any party position or running for same.

According to her, this proposal would have crippled all the party’s branches overseas had it been accepted, a situation that would have jeopardized the party’s chances of winning elections given the contributions of members in diaspora.

The idea of barring dual citizens from running for office was spearheaded by the NPP’s parliamentary caucus which argued that the move was to bring the party’s constitution in conformity with the 1992 Constitution which bars dual citizens from occupying public office.

But this proposal did not sit well with several members of the party including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who described it as a “disaster” when he spoke at the party’s Extraordinary Delegates’ Conference in Kumasi on Sunday, 17 December.

Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Monday, 18 December in connection with the rejection of the proposal, Obaa Yaa Frimpong, said: “This would have crippled the NPP branches outside the country and that would have been disastrous for the party because we played an important role in the victory of the NPP.

“For the first time in the history of Ghana’s elections, and due to the efforts of NPP members in the diaspora, we were able to win some parliamentary seats and an example is the Lawra seat being occupied by Anthony Karbo.

“Most people abandoned their work, their family and bought their own tickets to travel round the world to come and campaign for the party to win the elections, and, so, there is no way we should enact any policy or plan that will cut off these people from the party.”

She added: “Ghanaians in the diaspora have contributed enough to the building of the Ghanaian economy in general. We have the capacity to even bring the economy to its knees if we want to. As we speak, we are mobilising investors to come down to Ghana to invest in the One-District-One-Factory programme.”