During the recent vetting of her Ladyship Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, at the parliament in Ghana, she gave an opinion to wit, that a birth certificate issued by the state as the only legal and official documentation recording the birth of a child in Ghana cannot be used as evidence of citizenship.

I accept that her Ladyship may have been confused with the direct automatic situation as pertains in the United States of America, where it is clear and categorical, that once you are born in any part of America, you are a citizen of America, without any additional criteria.

She states that citizenship is a matter of law. I don’t know which law is greater and basic in Ghana, than the provisions of the 1992 constitution, which provides under citizenship the additional criteria that a child born in Ghana shall be a citizen of Ghana if at the time of birth, any or all its parents and or grand parents are citizens of Ghana.

Data captured as part of the entry to confirm the birth of a child in Ghana includes not only the date and place of birth but captures the citizenship of both parents. This is a legal requirement of the entry to register the birth of a child in Ghana, so as forms part of the data on the birth certificate.

So if the official birth certificate captures the birth and the details of the parents of the child as being of Ghanaian citizenship, how can the birth certificate not be used as evidence of citizenship, when it confirms the birth and details of the parents as citizens of Ghana in accordance with the tenants of the 1992 constitution of Ghana?

To apply for a passport in Ghana, which is another proof of citizenship, you require a birth certificate. How can you use your birth certificate as proof of nationality to acquire a Ghana passport but cannot use the same document as evidence of citizenship?

The state May dispute my citizenship if after attaining 18 years of age, I acquire the citizenship of another country and renounce my Ghanaian citizenship to do so. The onus must be on the state to provide such evidence to counter my citizenship.

I understand the argument that it’s easy to fraudulently obtain a birth certificate. But the lack of security and the inability of the state to prevent such fraud should not be a bar to me, who genuinely obtains a birth certificate after going through the process of legally registering the birth of my child and obtaining a birth certificate which captures parents citizenship as a Ghanaian.

It stands to reason, common sense reason, that if a birth certificate records the birth of a child and details of the parents as citizens of Ghana, then it should be able to use such legally obtained birth certificate as evidence of citizenship in Ghana.