Julia Schweers descent clause for citizenship at birth (regardless of whether born inside or outside of Ghana) so that they would need at least one parent as well as a grandparent or great-grandparent who had already been born in Ghana to be granted citizenship. (Nationality Act, No.361 of 1971, section 1(2)). By then, descendants of Middle Eastern immigrants had been living in Ghana for nearly a century, but the act made it nearly impossible for them to acquire Ghanaian citizenship. 2.1.3. Citizenship Law under the National Redemption Council (1972 – 1975) In January 1972, the Busia government was overthrown by Colonel Ignatius Acheampong who led the country with his National Redemption Council (NRC) for about three years. Again, Ghana’s citizenship laws were quickly amended, within less than a year after taking power. The 1972 Nationality (Amendment) Decree is a particularly peculiar document. It reiterated that anybody who does not qualify for citizenship under the predecessor government’s 1971 Nationality Act should be denationalised. It thus upheld the laws for citizenship by birth and descent formulated by its predecessor, the Busia government. Crucially, however, it added a provision that protected a very small and particular group of people from denationalisation: ‘For the avoidance of hardship […] the Commissioner may with the approval of the Executive Council grant a certificate of naturalisation to a person of full age and capacity who […] (a) was born in Ghana before the 6th day of March 1957; and (b) was divested of his citizenship of Ghana by the provisions of the Ghana Nationality (Amendment) Decree 1969 (N.L.C.D 333); and (c) between the 25th day of July, 1967 and the 15th day of February, 1969 formally renounced any foreign nationality held by him in accordance with the law of that foreign country.’ (Ghana Nationality (Amendment) Decree of 1972, sections 2(1a) – 2(1c) It is impossible to gauge how many persons fulfilled these very specific criteria for regaining their Ghanaian citizenship, but the provision seems to have been directed at one particular family of Middle Eastern descent, the Shalabi brothers. The Shalabis had a transportation business in Accra. Born to Lebanese parents pre-independence, they had the right to register for Ghanaian citizenship at independence and applied for it in 1967. Two years later, however, the 1969 Ghana Nationality (Amendment) Decree denationalised them. In 1971, the Shalabi family filed a lawsuit with the Ghanaian High Court and won the case (Shalabi vs Attorney General 1971). It thus seems that, with this decree, the NRC tried to forge alliances with Middle Eastern businessmen who had been persecuted and denationalised by previous political leaders. Beyond this addition to the laws for citizenship at birth and descent, the 1972 decree amended the requirements for citizenship by naturalisation, making it more difficult to naturalise in Ghana. The residence period to qualify for naturalisation was prolonged to ten years and the total list of requirements for naturalisation was extended to nine criteria (Ghana Nationality (Amendment) Decree of 1972, sections 2(2a) – 2(2i)). These mainly combined integration requirements – such as speaking an indigenous language or being ‘assimilated to the Ghanaian way of life’ – and economic requirements such as having made or being able to make a ‘substantial contribution to the economy of Ghana’ (without clarifying what would count as ‘substantial’). The moral requirement of ‘being of good character’ was further complicated because now the character of an applicant had to be ‘attested in writing by two Ghanaians of high social standing’. Again, there are no numbers of how many people attempted to acquire Ghanaian citizenship, but it seems fair to say that the long list of requirements for the application was drafted to deter people from applying in the beginning. 6 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies - EUI