General News of Thursday, 7 January 2021

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Mike Oquaye appears in inauguration brochure as Speaker of Parliament

Former Speaker of Parliament, Aaron Mike Oquaye play videoFormer Speaker of Parliament, Aaron Mike Oquaye

It appears the New Patriotic Party may have been very optimistic of a retention of the Speaker of Ghana’s 7th Parliament Mike Oquaye as speaker in the newly constituted parliament.

The immediate past speaker appeared in the 2021 inauguration brochure with the title, ‘Speaker of Parliament’ despite his loss to Alban Bagbin in the secret balloting.

It must be noted that the printing of the Brochure was done ahead of the Presidential inauguration. It perhaps was resultant of the fact that he had been projected as Speaker-nominee for the NPP caucus in the august house.

But it again raises questions about whether or not he was intended to have appeared as Speaker of the 7th Parliament in the brochure; in which case it could be considered an omission or it was a case of certainty on the part of NPP, that he would retain his position as speaker of the 8th parliament.

Whichever ways, the development which was captured on the page of NDC member Dzifa Gunu is rapidly catching the attention of some social media users who believe it was the latter.

Meanwhile, Former Member of Parliament for Nadowli Kaleo, Alban Bagbin, has been elected as the next Speaker of the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic after a chaotic voting exercise in the chamber of parliament in the early hours of Thursday, 7 January 2020.

He was elected over the New Patriotic Party's nominee, Prof Mike Oquaye, who had served as Speaker of the 7th Parliament.