Former Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament in the Fourth Parliament under the Kufuor administration, Prof. Mike Ocquaye has asked Ghanaians to be analytical in their attitudes.

He asserted the importance for people to learn not to just speak anyhow, but justify what they say.

The former MP for Dome Kwabenya was speaking in an exclusive interview on SUNRISE on Monday.

Explaining how he got into active politics, Prof. Ocquaye, who is a Minister of God, said after engaging the NDC in debates on GTV’s “Talking Points” programme, he discovered his love for public discourse. Prof. Ocquaye had been on the popular TV program in 1991, 92, 96 and then 2000.

He recalled “… going to speak against the PNDC, NDC was not a joke”.

“I debated every one of the NDC people, President Mahama himself, Spio Garbrah, Dr. Tony Aidoo and a whole lot of them came,” he recounted.

Prof. Ocquaye said he felt it was his civic responsibility to let his experience bear on issues discussed on the show by way of analysis especially when people came up with pronouncements that were verifiable and historically wrong. “It sounded incongruous to my ears and I felt that these things must be explained.”

He emphasized his call on the public to be more circumspect with their utterances. “People must learn, people cannot say anything, they must name their source they must justify what they are saying and we must be analytical in our attitudes.”

Professor Mike Ocquaye was Energy and later Communications Minister under the Kufuor regime.

He was also Ghana’s High Commissioner to India in 2002.