The Liberian Senate has created a their own version if they are to vote in favor of dual citizens’ bill under Part III Section 1 titled ‘Limitation of a Liberian Holding Citizenship of Another Country from Certain Elective Offices.’
The Senate says, “A Liberian citizen who holds the citizenship of another country shall not be eligible to be elected President of Liberia, Vice President of Liberia, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, Senator, Representative or to any other elective public office.”
Section 2: “A Liberian citizen who holds the citizenship of another country shall not be eligible for appointment to any of the following positions in the Government of Liberia Minister and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister and Deputy Minister of State for Presidential Affairs; Minister and Deputy Minister of Finance and Development Planning; Minister and Deputy Minister of Justice; Minister and Deputy Minister of Defense (v) Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Liberia; Inspector General of the Liberia National Police; Commissioner General of the Liberia Immigration Service; heads and deputy heads of [all] autonomous commissions and agencies; Executive Governor and Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia; and heads or deputy heads of [all] public corporations and parastatal.”
The Senate voted on the bill based on the advice and recommendations from members of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, Claims and Petitions, including J. Emmanuel Nuquay, Numene T. H. Bartekwa, Abraham Darius Dillon, and Atty, Stephen A. H. Zargo. Others are Cllr. Augustine Chea, Cllr. Morris D. Saytumah and Cllr. Varney Gboto-Nambi Sherman.
But ALCOD, through its Chairperson expressed its discomfort with those sections that limit them from holding certain offices. “We believe in the doctrine that ‘Once a Liberian, always a Liberian,’” Emmanuel Wettee said.
ALCOD seems not discouraged altogether as nearly all members of ALCOD’s delegation that had come to celebrate this milestone, have now left and gone back to their bases in Europe, the Americas and other parts of the world.
Even though Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) National President Shiwoh Kamara, Kingston Wreh, ALCOD’s Europe Chapter and others have returned, but they asked Eminent Chairman Wettee to stay on the ground and continue the mutual engagements with the Senate and House on the reconciliation of both versions of the bill.
ALCOD, which includes ULAA, European Federation of Liberian Associations (EFLA), Liberian Advocacy for Change (LAFC), Federation of Liberia Communities in Australia (FLCA), United Liberian Association of Ghana (ULAG), Liberian Association of Canada (LAC), and Conference of Liberian Organizations in Southwestern United States of America (CLOSUSA), hopes that the joint committee can speedily harmonize the bill and that President George Weah can sign it into law before as part of the July 26 Independence Day celebration.
The president is said to be working with members of the Senate and House to resolve this and this has kept the optimism of ALCOD alive. ALCOD represents more than 500,000 Liberians living in the diaspora.
Wettee expressed hope that the Bill on dual citizenship will definitely be passed into law in spite of the hiccups it is facing at the moment.
However, some of his compatriots have expressed frustrations over the slow pace at which the House of Representatives’ Senate Joint Conference Committee on the passage of the Dual Citizenship Bill is going about with its work.
According to them, since the Senate passed their version of the Dual Citizenship bill, it has been more than two months and the joint committee of both the Senate and House has met only once and nothing concrete came out of that meeting.
The House voted to amend the Alien and Nationality Law on Thursday, November 11, 2021. While the Senate voted on Thursday, May 20, 2022, to concur with the House of Representatives.
However, the Senate’s version of the bill differs significantly from that of what the House had passed and sent to it for concurrence.
The Act that the House had voted for was co-sponsored by 30 lawmakers from the House of Representatives. It had been submitted and chiefly sponsored by Rep. Acarous Gray. It was read in the Plenary of the House on November 2, 2021.
It sought to amend Part III, Chapter 20, Section 20.1; Chapter 21, Sections 21.30, 21.31, 21.51 & 21.52 and Chapter 22, Sections 22.1, 22.1 & 22.4 of the Aliens and Nationality Law of the Liberian Code of Law Revised, Vol. II.
The House passed its version of the bill without any “limitations” for Liberians of natural birth, but with citizenship of another country.
However, the Senate’s version didn’t follow suit with the House as it passed its version with several “limitations” for Liberians in that category.
It’s for this reason that the leaderships of the Senate and the House had to set up a Joint Conference Committee to work to fine tune the bill so that it can be harmonized and their differences reconciled.
The House’s side of the Joint Committee is being led by Gbarpolu County’s District 2 Rep. Kanie Wesso, while the Senate’s side is led by Grand Cape Mount County Sen. Varney Sherman.
