Eggs On Their Faces, As NPP’s Presumption That Mike Ocquaye Will Be Speaker Again Backfired

When the New Patriotic Party was going into the election for the Speaker of Parliament, it had counted its eggs before the hatch and published the photograph of outgoing Speaker, Prof. Aaron Mike Ocquay as the Speaker of the 8th Parliament in the program for the presidential investiture.

The party had assumed that Prof. Ocquay, whom they had put forward as repeat Speaker for the 8th Parliament after he presided over the 7th Parliament, would be elected again.

Apparently, the party’s martinet attitude in the build up to the vote, including the camping of all of the NPP’s MPs at the Alisa Hotel in Accra, tricked them into believing the retention for Ocquay was a done deal, hence the arrogant print of Ocquay’s picture in the program booklets distributed to guests, including Heads of States and members of the diplomatic Corps in attendance, as the Speaker of the 8th Parliament.

However, at the end of the vote, the NDC’s Alban Sumana Bagbin won by two votes to edge out Ocquay. Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin is therefore thye Speaker of Parliament and Presided over the investiture, rather than Mike Ocquay.

By the time the vote was concluded, the program booklets had already been printed and so it was impossible to change the name and pictures of Prof. Mike Ocquay with that of Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin.

And so, guests went through the program having Mike Ocquay listed as Speaker even though Alban Bagbin officiated the investiture.