Monrovia – President George Manneh Weah has called for the repealing of the part of the Constitution that restricts Liberian citizenship to people of color.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected] and Henry Karmo, [email protected]
He also called for the consideration of dual citizenship in Liberia.
In his first annual message on Monday, Liberia’s new President described Article 12 of the Constitution is racist and discriminatory as said provision has hampered the development of the country over the years.
“I believe that we should have nothing to fear from people of other race becoming citizens,” he said.
President Weah described the issue of citizenship in Liberia as his most urgent and imperative agenda.
“Since the founding of this country in 1847, more than 170 years ago, there have been certain restrictions on citizenship and property ownership. That, in my view, has become serious impediment and progress of the country,” President Weah said.
According to him, the framers of the 1847 Constitution may have every reason to place restrictions on citizenship due to the circumstances under which they settled on the continent, having been enslaved for centuries.
President Weah: “They, as freed slaves, were fleeing from the oppressive yoke of slavery imposed upon them by white slave owners. They therefore wanted Liberia to be ‘…a refuge and a haven for freed men of color’, and so they restricted citizenship only to black people,” he said.
In the view of President Weah, the threats and conditions upon which those restrictions were set no longer exist and as such, keeping such clause in the Constitution was unnecessary.
“In these circumstances, it is my view that keeping such a clause in our constitution is unnecessary, racist, and inappropriate for the place that Liberia occupies today in the comity of nations,” he said.
According to him, denying people without color Liberian citizenship “contradicts the very definition of Liberia, which is derived from the Latin word “liber,” Meaning “Liberty.””
Pres. Weah: “I believe that we should have nothing to fear from people of any other race becoming citizen of Liberia, once they conform to the requirements of our Immigration and Naturalization Laws, as maybe appropriately amended to address this new situation.”
He said it was an anomaly for the same ‘discriminatory clause’ to have found its way into the 1986 Constitution [Chapter 4, Article 27].
“I therefore strongly recommend and propose, respectfully, that consideration should be given to removing it by appropriate measures provided for in our laws for amending the Constitution [Chapter 12]” he said.
President Weah has also noted that constitutional limitation [Article 22 (a) ] on land ownership is also impeding and stunting Liberia’s growth and development.
Article 22 (a) of the Liberian Constitution states: a) “Every person shall have the right to own property alone as well as in association with others; provided that only Liberian citizens shall have the right to own real property within the Republic”.
Pres. Weah said, “No foreign investor – in fact, not any investor – will be willing to make significant direct investments in our country if they cannot own property in fee simple. Furthermore, direct investments placed on leased properties are virtually unbankable, because most banks are reluctant to accept leaseholds as collateral for loans to persons and business entities for projects that could very well enhance our development and create jobs for our people.”
He noted that Liberians are free to purchase property in any part of the world as non-citizens, however, the Liberian Constitution and laws will not allow similar privilege to be accorded to the citizens of other nations.
Weah: “I therefore strongly recommend that this restriction be removed, and that the appropriate rules and regulations of the Land Commission and other relevant agencies be amended and strengthened to accommodate this new development, if approved by referendum.”