Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa says Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye was so bossy and sometimes autocratic during his tenure as Speaker of the 7th Parliament.
He said, due to such traits, he did not really allow the debate in the house to flow as it ought to be in any democratic setting.
He added that, aside from all these, he came across as someone who was too partisan and the minority at the time had to complain to Ghanaians over some of the decisions that he took as Speaker of Parliament.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who was assessing Speaker Alban Bagbin and the 8th Parliament had to compare him [Alban Bagbin] to his predecessor, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye.
“The venerable Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has entered the role quite impressively. He is the most experienced person we have had as a Speaker in terms of knowledge of the House. He epitomizes this 4th Republic, he’s been in the House as a founding MP since 1993; he’s gone through the ranks for almost 3 decades and so he knows the entire rudiments and spectrum, he is well vested with the proceedings, technicalities and with the role that Parliament should play. He has been more accommodating…,” he said in a Citi TV interview monitored by GhanaWeb.
Okudzeto Ablakwa added, “comparably, Prof Mike Oquaye who is my own Sunday school teacher, my own lecturer, University of Ghana, […] because of that teacher role that he has played over the years, he tendered to be a bit too bossy, quite autocratic sometimes, he did not really allow the debate in the House to flow and he came across sometimes as too partisan.
“Indeed, we had cause to go public on some of his rulings, his posturing and that is not to take anything away from him as a fine man; as a mentor to many.”
“If you juxtapose Prof Mike Oquaye’s tenure in the 7th Parliament with the 8th Parliament, though is early days yet, you’ll see that Speaker Bagbin has been enduring to both sides and very accommodating. There are times that he has been torn between allowing motions that have been filed go as it is which will lead to ‘acrimonious’ debate,” Ablakwa compared further.
He noted that, due to Alban Bagbin’s accommodating nature, he always tries as much as possible to reach consensus with the MPs on most of the motions that come before the House.
“But he has been accommodating to opt for a more consensual approach,” he stressed.