Speaker Alban Bagbin and Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, will leave a footprint on Ghana’s governance architecture according to Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu.
“I trust in the leadership of Bagbin, I trust that he will leave some footprint on our governance architecture as speaker of Parliament,” Iddrisu said in an interview with Accra-based Citi TV on the Point of View show.
The Tamale South MP added that he was proud to have moved ‘the motion of destiny’ on January 7, which motion led to the ‘shock’ election of Alban Bagbin as speaker of the 8th Parliament.
Bagbin had opted to leave lawmaking after twenty-eight years serving in varied capacities including as deputy speaker as well as a Majority and Minority leader along the way.
But on January 7, 2021, as the current Parliament convened to elect a speaker, his name popped up as the preferred candidate by the main opposition National Democratic Congress as against the candidature of the then outgoing speaker, Aaron Mike Oquaye, of the governing New Patriotic Party.
After a rancorous voting process which involved shouting and hurling of invectives by Members of Parliament-elect, kicking of voting booths and snatching of ballot papers, not to talk of a military invasion of the chamber, Alban Bagbin was elected speaker.
Whiles the NDC insists he won the vote outright, the NPP said he was a consensus candidate between the two sides of the house. The NPP agreed to play ball because they had a presidential inauguration to attend, which event the Minority had said they will boycott.