Akufo-Addo grants citizenship to 126 Africans in the diaspora

President Nana Akufo-Addo has granted Ghanaian citizenship to 126 Africans in the Diaspora who have arrived in the country as part of the Year of Return campaign.

The 126 swore the oath of allegiance to Ghana after receiving Ghanaian passports at a ceremony at the Jubilee House in Accra.

President Akufo-Addo charged the new Ghanaian citizens to abide by the country’s laws and strive to protect its image at all times.

“Your decision to be a Ghanaian citizen means that you have agreed to respect and abide by the laws of Ghana and live in accordance with the tenets of Ghana’s Constitution. You have the responsibility of preserving and promoting the image of the country whose reputation amongst the community of nations is today, high,” Akufo-Addo said.

The Director of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, Akwasi Awuah Ababio, had earlier told Citi News that about 200 people were in line to be granted Ghanaian citizenship.

“For some of them, they have been in the country for so long and they deserve it,” Akwasi Awuah noted.

In 2016 30 Africans in the Diaspora were also granted Ghanaian citizenship.

The Year of Return is an initiative by the government to celebrate 400 years of the slave trade.

The event which started in January 2019 has seen a lot of personalities visiting the country.

Celebrities like Mutabaruka, Deborah Cox, AJ Johnson, Samuel L Jackson, Danny Glover, Steve Harvey have all been in the country.

The celebration hits its crescendo in December 2019 where a litany of programmes have been tabled for the celebration.

Africans in the Diaspora and Ghanaians will enjoy programmes like #D2R2019, AfroNation, Detty Rave, Kiddafest, Asante Bonwire Kente Festival, Gold Coast experience, among others.

From January this year, events like Fuse ODG’s TINA Festival, African Culture & Wellness Festival, Kwahu Paragliding, Jagafest, among others, have been held.

The “Year of Return, Ghana 2019” is a major landmark spiritual and birth-right journey inviting the Global African family, home and abroad, to mark 400 years of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Virginia.

The arrival of enslaved Africans marked a sordid and sad period when Africa’s kith and kin were forcefully taken away from Africa into years of deprivation, humiliation and torture.

While August 2019 marks 400 years since enslaved Africans arrived in the United States, “The Year of Return, Ghana 2019” celebrates the cumulative resilience of all the victims of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade who were scattered and displaced through the world in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia.