Bagbin recounts how he was persuaded to contest Oquaye for Speakership

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has revealed that he initially had no intention of contesting the Speakership against Aaron Mike Oquaye following the 2020 general elections.

He disclosed that he had even paid a farewell visit to his predecessor a day before he was persuaded to run.

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According to him, the turn of events that led to the historic contest for the leadership of the House came as a surprise, particularly after what he described as a cordial meeting with Professor Oquaye.

Recounting the episode during a thanksgiving service for the Clerk of Parliament on February 22, 2026, Bagbin said he visited Oquaye on January 4, 2021, at his office as Speaker of the 7th Parliament of the Fourth Republic to bid him farewell, believing his parliamentary journey had come to an end.

“Actually, on January 4, 2021, I went to visit him in his office as the Speaker of the 7th Parliament of the Fourth Republic and bid him farewell, and he thanked me so much,” he stated.

He added that the meeting ended on a generous note.

“He gave me 20,000 Ghana cedis and wished me the best of times after Parliament,” Bagbin disclosed.

The Speaker said he was therefore taken aback when he was approached the very next day to contest the position he had just bid farewell to.

“At that time, I didn’t know that General Mosquito, the chairman who is here, and others had conspired to get me to contest him,” he said, referring to Johnson Asiedu Nketia.

“The next day, January 5, 2021, I was called and summoned, and I said to myself, ‘I’ve gone to bid him goodbye and he gave me 20,000. How am I going to contest him again?’ And the rest is history,” he added.

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Bagbin subsequently won the Speakership to lead the 8th Parliament, having earlier made history as Ghana’s longest-serving Member of Parliament for the Nadowli Kaleo Constituency.



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