As lawmakers submit bill
Liberia: About 30 lawmakers from the House of Representatives have co-signed a bill and submitted the same before the House requesting the amendment or the repeal of parts of the country’s Aliens and Nationality Law.
The bill requesting the amendment or repeal of some parts of the Aliens and Nationality Law of Liberia is headed by Montserrado County District #8 Representative, Acarous Moses Gray.
Rep. Gray in the letter before the House of Representatives he had given “due consideration to the spirit and intent of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia.”
“It is against this backdrop that I humbly submit to you, Honorable Speaker and Distinguished Colleagues, for legislative enactment consideration by way of amendment and or repealing of the existing law through a proposed Bill titled, “An Act 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.”
Gray is the Chairman of the House’s Committee on Executive. He and his co-signees believe that the amendment or repeal of certain parts of this law will satisfy the constitutional provision in Article 2 of the 1986 Liberian Constitution, which states, “… Any laws, treaties, statutes, decrees customs and regulations found to be inconsistent with it shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void and of no legal effect…”
The bill, which is being backed by 30 other lawmakers as co-sponsors including Deputy Speaker Jonathan Fonati Koffa, was submitted on Friday, October 29, and read on the House’s floor on Tuesday, November 2nd. It was later forwarded to the Committee on Judiciary to report back to Plenary within one week.
Gray, an official of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) of President George Weah, is the “Chief Sponsor” of the Bill for the amendment.
The particular bill in question is also being back by the All-Liberian Conference on Dual Citizenship (ALCOD), which includes the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (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 the Southwestern United States of America (CLOSUSA). ALCOD represents more than 500,000 Liberians living in the diaspora.
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Rep. Gray’s submission comes a few days after it was published in the media that some diaspora Liberians, who became fed up with “lack of action and will”, had called on Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon to withdraw a similar bill that he had submitted with his colleagues, in the Senate, for legislative enactment.
Meanwhile, members of ALCOD have extended their thanks and appreciation to President Weah, who had, among eight other proposals for amendment in the December 2020 Special Senatorial Election, included the dual citizenship proposal for amendment. “The President still continues to support our effort for dual citizenship today. It is our wish that he will support the Rep. Gray-sponsored bill.”
The ALCOD members also thanked the Speaker and Members of the House for their support for dual citizenship. They have also thanked Senators Varney Sherman, Abraham Darius Dillon, who had submitted similar bills in the Senate for passage.
These diaspora-based Liberians hope that when the bill passes through the House, it will be concorded in the Senate.https://thenewdawnliberia.com/pro-temp-chie-dual-citizenship-is-not-resolved/
