By Christopher Arko, GNA
Accra, Jan.7 GNA-Veteran politician and Member of Parliament for Nadowli Kaleo, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, seventh term Member of Parliament, has been elevated in the august House, with more recognition and responsibility.
The former MP, who occupied various positions in parliament, to the position of Minister in the then Atta Mills Government, and declared one of the Wise Men later, was on Thursday, elected by the Parliament of Ghana to be its Speaker for the next four years.
He beat the immediate past Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Michael Oquaye, in a hotly contested election by the then Members of Parliament Elect with a margin of two votes.
Chief Justice Kwesi Aniin-Yeboah, swore him in as Speaker of the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana.
He was nominated on January 6, 2021 by the National Executive Council of the National Democratic Congress as the party’s candidate for the Speakership position.
Mr Bagbin, a former Majority Leader in Parliament would also be the next NDC member to be made Speaker after Mr Edward Doe Adjaho who led the Sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic (2013 to 2017), Justice Joyce Bamford Addo who led the Fifth Parliament from 2009 to 2012 as well as Justice Daniel Francis Annan who led the First and Second Parliament of the Fourth Republic from 1993 to 2000.
Mr Bagbin, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli Kaleo was born on September 24, 1957, at Sombo in the Upper West Region and is a graduate of the University of Ghana (1977-1980) and the Ghana School of Law (1980 -1982).
He holds an Executive Masters in Governance and Leadership from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
The MP for Nadowli Kaleo and former Majority Leader started schooling at an early age at the Roman Catholic Primary School, Sombo, did his second cycle education at Wa Secondary School and ended at the Tamale Secondary School, where he earned his Ordinary Level (O-Level) and Advanced Level (A-Level) certificates before entering the University of Ghana in 1977.
From 1980 to 1982, he worked at the Bureau of Statistics and Statistical Service as the acting Secretary to the Statistical Service Board while between 1982 and 1983; he worked as Personnel Manager of the erstwhile State Hotels Corporation.
Mr Bagbin practised as private legal practitioner in the Akyem Chambers, a firm of legal practitioners, consultants and notaries public, as a partner.
He is currently the longest serving member of parliament, having served since 1993 when the first parliament under the 4th Republic was inaugurated.
He has held a number of positions in Parliament since 1994 and capped his law-making career with the ultimate, the Majority Leader and Leader of the House.
In the first Parliament of the Fourth Republic, he was made the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation and Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Mines and Energy and Member of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development.
In the Second Parliament of the Fourth Republic, Mr. Bagbin was the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs with oversight responsibilities for the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Electoral Commission, National Commission on Civic Education, Office of Parliament and Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
He was also the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee from 2001 to 2005 and also the Vice-Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament. He did not run again for Parliament in the 2020 elections.
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