The announcement was made by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia at a townhall-style meeting organised by Multimedia Ghana on the occasion of the 100 days in office of the new government.
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Bawumia claims a three-year old Mahama achievement as part of NPP's 100 days achievement
In fact, the office was set up three years ago (May 2014) upon the recommendation of President John Mahama. Dr Bawumia got it wrong.
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The statement
“We have established the Office of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President to link Ghana to our brethren in the diaspora in order to attract their skills. This is the first time it has been done. We are very happy to have done this”, the Vice President said while enumerating 103 achievements of the new government.
The facts
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The Akufo-Addo led administration did not and is not the first to establish an office dedicated to diaspora affairs.
In fact, the office was set up three years ago upon the recommendation of the President John Mahama. In May 2014, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration created the Diaspora Affairs Bureau, which was the strengthening of a unit created in 2012 called the Diaspora Support Unit.
So first, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs created the Diaspora Support Unit in 2012, it was then strengthened and metamorphosed into the Diaspora Affairs Bureau in May 2014. Bureau, a late 17 century French word, is another word for Office used in public administration.
In May 2014, myjoyonline reported: “The Director of the Diaspora Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Filbert Johnson says the Bureau was established under the recommendation [of] President Mahama to meet the needs of the growing number of Ghanaians residing abroad interested in contributing to Ghana's development and well-being.”
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What the new government appears to have done is to simply change the location of the office from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Office of the President and certainly that cannot count as an achievement.
This then makes the statement by the Vice President inaccurate as this new government did not create that office.
Many on social media have criticised the Vice President for including 'intentions' and 'pronouncements' and not concrete measures as part of its achievements within the first 100 days.
Ghana’s diaspora
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Ghana has a very large diaspora population. According to the United Nations’ migration agency, the International Organisation For Migration, there are about three million Ghanaians living outside the country. This includes Ghanaians who have emigrated outside the country and people of Ghanaian origin born outside the country. There are also people of African descent across the world who trace a heritage to Ghana because of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
In November 2001 (during the time of President John Kufuor), Ghana’s Parliament passed the ‘The Right to Abode’ which makes people of African descent eligible to stay in the country indefinitely upon the approval of the Ministry of Interior.
In December 2016, Ghana's government granted citizenship to 34 Afro-Caribbean people.
Links to facts
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