A group of women in the Eastern region are using the 30th anniversary of the Parliament of Ghana to celebrate who they perceive to be the legislature’s most outstanding person in the whole of the Fourth Republic.
Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, according to the women led by Mrs. Emelia Darkwa of Osino is the quintessence of a true institutional memory when it comes to the Parliament of Ghana’s Fourth Republican democracy.
“If Parliament is 30 years old, then it means that Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin has been a legislator for 30 years as well,” said Mrs. Darkwah, who was addressing journalists on behalf of the women in the region.
she continues, “he is like the chief custodian of Parliament, the man who started with it all and has remained in service to the eight Parliament over which he rightfully and befittingly presides as the Speaker.”
“Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin is the most important institutional memory of Parliament.”
This year, Ghana’s Parliament is commemorating its 30th anniversary having come into sitting in 1993.
Incidentally, this commemoration also marks the 30th anniversary of the 1992 constitution which has been governing the 4th Republic.
While all of these milestones are generating excitements, one that has been particularly interesting is that, it also marks the 30th anniversary of the current Speaker of Parliament himself in his service in the august house.
Rt. Hon. Bagbin himself noted the fact, “We are this year observing the combined 30th anniversary of our Constitution, our Parliament, and our Fourth Republic. Dare I say that there is a fourth 30th anniversary that we celebrate this year; and that is the 30th anniversary of one Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin in parliament,” his introduction read in part,” he said in address.
According to Mrs. Emelia Darkwah, “Bagbin’s longevity in Parliament makes him richly deserving of national recognition by way of an award.”
She points out that, “being the longest serving legislator in the history of the Fourth Republic, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, has been of more service to Parliamentary democracy than anybody else including former president Mahama and current president Nana Akufo-Addo, who all started their political careers in Parliament.”
She credits the Speaker with, “mentoring most of the MPs who have been through parliament and helping mould whatever institutional culture that Parliament can boast of.”
Ask Bagbin, she said, “is also the one man we can boldly say has input in every law that we have had in the Fourth Republic thus far.”
She therefore reiterated calls for the 7th Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament to be awarded the Order of the Volta, Ghana’s highest honour.
Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin is the seventh in the lineage of Speakers of the Fourth Republic. His predecessors are Rt. Hon. Daniel Francis Annan (late), the pioneering Speaker of the First Parliament of the Fourth Republic, who served from 7th January 1993 to 6th January 2001; Rt. Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey (late), the Speaker of Parliament from the 7th January 2001 to the 6th January 2005 and Rt. Hon. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi-Hughes was Speaker of Parliament from 7th January 2005 to 6th January 2009.
The rest are Rt. Hon. Justice Joyce Adelaide Bamford-Addo, who was the Speaker of Parliament from 7th January 2009 to 6th January 2013; Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho was Speaker of Parliament from 7th January 2013 to 6th January 2017 and Rt. Hon. Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, who took over as the Speaker of Parliament on 7th January 2017.
Source: ghanaweb.com / Richard Asamoah, Contributor
